


horses, tricks, and treats

by anadiangelo, siojo



Series: Equestrian AU [5]
Category: One Piece
Genre: (so many horse facts guys), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animals, Background Relationships, Equestrian, Flirting, Horse Bites, Horse Competitions, Horse facts, Horses, M/M, Mentioned Coby, Mentioned Former Relationships, Mentioned Spade Pirates, Shopping, mentioned horse related injuries, minor celebrity status
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-08-27 09:33:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 25,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16699933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anadiangelo/pseuds/anadiangelo, https://archiveofourown.org/users/siojo/pseuds/siojo
Summary: Law is suppose to take the day to provide medical back up at Windsor with Marco, who volunteered because he's a fool in love, because he's getting two days in a row off afterwards. He didn't volunteer to spend his days off watching the competition and making friends.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> You may see a co-creator now! Because Anadiangelo is literally the best and she's done all the horse research with very little help from me and there was so much that it's taken up several documents on google. She's amazing and deserves for everyone to know that.
> 
>  
> 
> (edit: the social media in this chapter has been edited!)

“You bought a cat for your boyfriend,” Law states slowly, smirking as he watches Marco shifting. “And now, after you’ve paid for it, you’re worried if he’ll like it?”

 

“Ace likes cats. He loves the barn cats at the farm and the ones at the park. He’s not going to be upset with a kitten, I have at least checked that much,” Marco says sitting on the edge of one of the gurneys that they had set up, waiting patiently for anyone that might need them. “Just, I’m not sure how he’s going to react to the kitten when it gets here.”

 

“He loves cats.”

 

“And this is a kitten. Technically the same but also some major differences, Kotatsu-”

 

Law interrupts him, raising an eyeb row, “You have named this kitten Kotatsu?”

 

“I asked Ace what he would name a kitten,” Marco defends himself. “Ace said he liked Kotatsu and I was hoping it would help him bond with Kotatsu.”

 

“You’re a mess,” Law says, yawning as he leans back on his gurney.

 

They’re surplus, added onto the roster in case  something happens and someone is hurt too badly. But there isn’t really much to do. A few falls and one unlucky man who broke his rib falling off mid-jump, but nothing that was too dangerous, even if the broken rib had been sent to the A&E to get x-rays and make sure it wouldn’t get too close to a lung. It’s boring and Law is going to fall asleep if he doesn’t get something to do soon. Even Marco’s relationship issues aren’t interesting enough to keep him up.

 

“What does Stefan think of a kitten?” Law asks finally, for lack of anything else. “I know you said that Kotatsu is Ace’s, but at some point, if you’re serious, you’ll move in together. You don’t think that it might be best to know if Kotatsu and Stefan get along?”

 

“Stefan loves kittens, he thinks they’re cute. Might think that they’re tiny dogs, he keeps trying to play fight and crying when they slap him,” Marco answers. “Have you even see a picture of Kotatsu?”

 

Law raises an eyebrow, “You mean I could have been seeing pictures of fluffy animals and you haven’t been sharing?”

 

“I’ll take that as a no,” Marco mutters pulling his phone from his pocket and swiping through to the gallery. “This is Kotatsu.”

 

“That is a tiny cotton ball with legs,” Law corrects because Kotatsu is adorable and looks soft enough that his hand would sink into all that fur. “And how much did he cost you? I know you said you went to a breeder of some kind, didn’t you?”

 

“Probably not as much as you’re thinking, she’s in Norway,” Marco reminds him. “She’s friends with the person that Pops get his dogs from. My family is going to take care of him until we can get him here, he has to be fifteen weeks to meet flight regulations about travel internationally. Which, if I planned it right, means that Kotatsu will arrive when Ace and I get back from Southern France.”

 

Law hums, “More pictures, Marco. You haven’t shown me one before this. If Ace doesn’t want him, I would.”

 

“I’m not getting you a kitten, I worry every day that I’ll come into work to hear that you’ve been admitted for allergies. Aren’t you allergic to cats?”

 

“No. What kind of cat is this?” Law asks curiously, looking at a picture of Kotatsu with a bigger looking version of it. “They’re pretty big.”

 

“Norse Skogkatt. Might know them better as Norwegian Forest Cat,” Marco answers tapping the picture. “That’s the mom, forgot her name. Should have a picture of the dad somewhere in there. Both of them are giants even for the breed.”

 

“Big enough to eventually deal with Stefan’s exuberant affection?” Law smirks, watching Marco roll his eyes. “He does jump a lot for such a well trained dog.”

 

“He’s excited. And he’s settled down with Ace taking him for runs and on trails when he’s home. Still hyper with just the trainer, myself, and the sitter, but he’s high energy and we can only do so much,” Marco shows him the last picture and locks his phone. “But that’s Kotatsu.”

 

“I still think naming a kitten after a Japanese table is weird,” Law states dropping back down on his gurney. “But he’s cute. Lots of fluffy and cute.”

 

“I’m so glad you approve.”

 

“You’re not going to be asking Ace or any of his family?”

 

Marco snorts, “I’ve asked his mom and dad. Roger told me I can’t propose to his son this soon and Rouge laughed until I explained it was a kitten. They think he’ll love Kotatsu, so it’s not a concern, but what if it is?”

 

“You’re worrying too much, if his parents think he’ll love it, Kotatsu is going to have a loving home,” Law glances at Marco. “You asked more than just his parents, didn’t you?”

 

“Sabo, Dragon, and Garp too. Garp’s wife was on the phone for the conversation and told me that her grandchildren would love anything I gave Ace. Which is certainly not helpful.”

 

“Not the last one, Lutty?” Law asks, frowning because that sounds wrong, but they’re always the Monkey family. He doesn’t remember the names of most of them, no matter how famous they are locally. “Right?”

 

“Luffy,” Marco corrects. “And Dragon told me that asking his son would lead to Ace finding out because Luffy can’t keep a secret. He’s Luffy’s dad, so I assume he knows his son.”

 

“Mhm,” Law agrees easily. “So, you’ve got your boyfriend a kitten and your puppy will, probably, love him. Anything else new?”

 

Marco sighs, “You’re not going to drop this until I actually give Ace his kitten, are you?”

 

“You knew that I wouldn’t, I’ve got nothing better to do than tease you about this. We’re friends,” Law doesn’t mean to pause after that, because he’s never sure if they are friends or not. He’s never been very good with social cues. “And I hear that teasing is what friends do.”

 

“What if I bribe you with kitten pictures to avoid the teasing? Ace is going to tease me too when he finds out what I did to hide Kotatsu from him.”

 

Law hums, “Tempting, but no. I’m more interested in teasing you. Would like the pictures too.”

 

Marco opens his mouth to answer, but stops, standing up as something starts to happen at the front of the tent, “Sabo?”

 

“Marco,” the blond man dragging someone behind him says brightly. “Can you look Luffy over for me? He got squished.”

 

Law doesn’t know what that means, but it doesn’t exactly sound the safest. It brings to mind a horse falling onto someone. He hopes that it doesn’t mean that, if it does, this one is probably headed to the A&E too.

 

“Luffy, come sit here and I’ll let Dr. Trafalgar look you over. He’s still a junior doctor, but he’s one of the better ones. Law, if you don’t mind?” Marco smirks at him, because this is revenge for teasing him about Kotatsu. “We’ll go over here and I’ll calm Sabo down. Is Ace still competing?”

 

“Dr. Tra-,” Luffy frowns over his name and Law understands, his last name can be difficult. Though it’s usually children who have issues. “Tra-fa-”

 

“You can call me, Law. Luffy, right?” Law asks picking up his stethoscope and wrapping it around his neck. “What exactly happened?”

 

“Sabo’s being stupid,” Luffy answers bluntly. “I was feeding Merry treats, because we did good today. Made all our jumps, a good day. So I was feeding Merry carrots, because she’s a good girl, it’s her first time competing at this level!, and Merry was excited and squished me a little bit against part of the stall we’ve got.”

 

Law raises an eyebrow, “Squished all of you or?”

 

“Just my shoulder, Traffy.”

 

“Traffy?” Law says slowly in confusion and then Luffy grins. “You actually smile like that.”

 

“Your name’s too hard, so I’m gonna call you Traffy instead. Like Merry, Merry’s name is horrible, so it’s just Merry,” Luffy grins, wider still. “You thought the posters were fake?” Luffy bounces on the gurney. “You’re Marco’s friend who thinks my smile is fake!”

 

“Marco’s mentioned that?”

 

“He thought it was funny, cause this is my smile. And we showed him the pictures that weren’t edited. Ace’s got Wisteria licking his face in one. Elly tried to eat my lapels, Liberty, she’s Sabo’s, thought his hair looked yummy, but they always think that,” Luffy agrees and his smile is so bright that Law feels like he should look away. “Do you have to check my shoulder?”

 

“If only so your friend there won’t be upset,” Law agrees, because Luffy gestures when he talks and if there was any pain, there would have been a reaction by now or some limit to his mobility if something was broken. “Shirt off.”

 

Luffy pouts, it’s an honest to God pout. The kind that Law hasn’t seen since Lami hit double digits and declared she was too old to pout, before taking off his shirt for Law to get a better look at his shoulder, it’s perfectly fine, Law decides watching him take it off, but Sabo is still looking worried, so Law will at least pretend to look it over.

 

“Which shoulder,” Law yawns, covering his mouth quickly. “I’m sorry for that.”

 

“It’s okay, Traffy. It’s this one,” Luffy taps his left shoulder. “But it really doesn’t hurt.”

 

Law smiles, “But Sabo looks really worried, I should at least check. Or he might make you go to the hospital.”

 

“Oh, good point. I don’t want to miss out on Ace’s scores. I wanna try and beat Ace, he’s super good. I mean, dad’s better, but it would be cool to beat Ace,” Luffy nods. “What is Traffy gonna do?”

 

“Arm?” Law asks, raising an eyebrow as he shifts Luffy’s arm and can feel the muscles underneath the skin. Stronger than he had thought. “You’re fine. Worse that could happen is a bruise, but you’re fine.”

 

“I told you, Sabo!” Luffy jumps to his feet, forgetting his shirt as he bounds across the room to throw himself on Sabo’s back. “Traffy says that I’m not hurt.”

 

Sabo glances at Law, “he’s fine?”

 

“His shoulder is fine,” Law says shrugging easily. “Not even bruised. I think he’ll be fine, but we might have to amputate.”

 

Luffy laughs, “Traffy’s silly. But Sabo, we have to go, Ace’ll be done soon and I wanna hear his scores. Hurry up, hurry up!”

 

Law yawns again as Sabo bullies Luffy into putting his shirt back on before leading the way back to the exit. He’s just considering laying back on the gurney and seeing if Marco will let him have a nap, when-

 

“Hey, hey Traffy?” Luffy asks, waiting until Law turns to look at him before continuing. “Do you wanna join us for dinner? Marco will be there too, so you won’t be alone and Ace and Marco can’t be super mushy and gross.”

 

“They have made out in front of one too many of my salads,” Law says smirking when Marco makes an offended sound. “But if you can promise that they won’t and there’s food that I can actually eat, then I’m more than willing to clear time for dinner.”

 

Luffy grins, Law wants to know how it keeps getting wider, “And you can come up and watch Sabo compete when your shift is all finished! Or maybe look around? If you think you might be interested?”

 

Sabo is looking at Luffy like he’s never seen him before and Marco is choking on something behind him. Law doesn’t think it’s weird, he’s one of their family's guest, according to the little badge that Marco had given him when they arrived.

 

“Alright, my shift ends at-”

 

“17:30,” Luffy grins. “I know. See you then, Traffy!”

 

Law drops onto the gurney as soon as they leave, yawning, “Can I take a nap now that your boyfriend’s mother hen of a best friend is no longer worrying over nothing? I’m exhausted and we have hours until we can go home.”

 

“I’m not the one who stayed up late,” Marco reminds him, “But you’ve got an hour for lunch, if you would rather sleep instead.”

 

“Wake me up never,” Law grumbles, closing his eyes.

* * *

 

“Traffy!” Luffy bounces into the tent at 17:30 exactly, just as happy and bright as he had been when they had last seen him. “Come on, we’ve gotta go. And we gotta get more carrots!”

 

Law blinks up from where’s he’s supposed to be telling the rider he’s speaking with to take care because his ribs are bruised, “One moment, Luffy and I’ll be right with you,” taking his time finishing up. “We need carrots?”

 

“Elly did amazing!” Luffy says rocking forwards onto his toes to give himself just a bit more height, eyes glittering. “Elly was so good and I don’t have enough carrots for him! But dad says he saw some for sale, so we have to go.”

 

“I’ll see you a dinner,” Marco says clapping a hand on his shoulder. “I want to see how Ace is doing. Have fun.”

 

“Bye!” Luffy shouts before turning to Law. “I don’t remember his name.”

 

Law snorts, “That’s Marco, he’s been dating Ace for a while now. How do you not remember his name?” Luffy shrugs and Law feels like that is all the answer he’s going to get. “You said we need carrots?”

 

“We need a lot of carrots, we only have two and that’s not enough for Elly. Elly did better than two carrots,” Luffy agrees. “We can feed him them and he’ll be happy.”

 

“I thought your horse was Merry?”

 

“I have three, Merry was earlier. Elly was in the last round, horses can only compete twice during the whole event. We did good, but Ace’s scores were better, he got in the top five. I only placed in the top ten, but I’m gonna beat him this weekend. He was about to get them, but carrots are important Traffy, you have to treat your horses.”

 

“I see.”

 

Luffy is talkative, leading the way to the first place he saw carrots and buying more than Law thought was strictly needed, thrusting half of them into Law’s arms.

 

“Elly doesn’t like new people, he’s a cranky butt, but you have carrots now,” Luffy says brightly. “He likes them more than he doesn’t like people.”

 

“You named a male horse Ellie?” Law asks curiously.

 

“E-l-l-y,” Luffy spells out. “It’s a nickname. Like Merry. Because horses have to have real names and they’re the worst. Dad said one was named Ladykiller XX, so nicknames,” Luffy explains, stopping and frowning. “I need to hide eight of these.”

 

Law raises an eyebrow as Luffy starts looking around, before grinning and heading towards one of the horse cars, throwing open the door and startling the woman at the table inside.

 

“Luffy, what-?”

 

“I got too many carrots, Nami! Elly can’t have twenty carrots!” Luffy says moving further inside and vanishing from Law’s sight. Nami, at least that’s what Luffy called her, frowns at him. “Traffy and I will be back to change!”

 

“Who was that,” Law asks as Nami shouts after them. “She seems upset.”

 

“Nami controls my life,” Luffy answers. “Come on, Elly’s in here. Elly!”

 

Elly is bigger up close, Law should have known that since Luffy’s head just reaches the top of the horse’s shoulders, but he’s not expecting it, watching as Luffy happily feeds him the two carrots in his hands before beckoning Law closer.

 

“Traffy, this is Elly,” Luffy introduces. “Elly is my horse.”

 

“And Elly’s a nickname,” Law says slowly holding a carrot out to horse. “Short for?”

 

“Le Pistolet Éléphant, it’s French for the elephant gun,” Luffy answers laughing when Elly snorts, taking one of the quickly vanishing carrots from Law. “Like I said, names are weird.”

 

Law laughs, because that hadn’t been what he had been expecting at all. Who named a horse Elephant Gun, “And if that is Elly’s name, what’s Merry’s?”

 

“Chaloupe va Joyeux,” Luffy states petting Elly. “You were such a good boy, a good boy. You did so good, what a good Elly, so good.”

 

“You have Elephant gun and Ship of Joy?”

 

“Ace named one of his horses after a snake! One of his horses’ is named Fer de Lance, and then he had one of Gramps’ for the longest time too and I can’t remember that name,” Luffy says frowning at Law. “There’s lots of bad names.”

 

“I’m sure.”

 

Luffy frowns at him suspiciously, petting Elly for a moment before sighing, “Come on, we have to change. Elly got you,” he grabs Law’s forearm and holds it up, horse spit all over his sleeves. “And I probably need new pants, but we can go watch Sabo after?”

 

“That sounds fine. Are Ace and Marco going to be there too?” Law asks, allowing Luffy to lead the way out of the stables and back towards the horse car that they had stopped at to drop off the extra carrots. “Or will it just be us?”

 

“Don’t know, they might come along. That’s their choice,” Luffy says shrugging. “Nami! We’re back!”

 

“What do you mean, back?” Nami, the woman from before, asks slowly. “What the hell were you even doing?”

 

“I got carrots for Elly. This is Dr. Traffy, he’s Marco’s friend.”

 

Nami nods slowly, “Right,” she smiles politely. “I’m Nami, I’m Luffy’s manager. You are?”

 

“Law. Dr. Law Trafalgar,” Law answers. “Nice to meet you.”

 

“You as well. Are you here to change,” she gestures at his shirt and Law can see exactly how much of mess has been made of it because of Elly. “I don’t think they’ll let you in if you go like that. Luffy either.”

 

“I’m gonna change, promise!” Luffy says from further in the horse car, returning from the back with a clothes hanger. “I’m gonna change and than Traffy can! That way we both look nice!”

 

“Get changed already, Luffy. I’m sure that Law doesn’t want to be covered in your horse’s saliva for longer than he has to,” she waits until the door closes. “One of Marco’s friends, huh?”

 

“Luffy says that you control his life.”

 

Nami laughs, “I do. I’m his manager, if he has to do anything, I’m involved in making it happen and making sure that he gets there. Ace has Deuce and Luffy has me.”

 

“Is it hard?”

 

“Luffy is nice to work for,” Nami says slowly. “But he’s also difficult in his own way. Mostly stemming from his ADHD and how scatterbrained it can make him. He pays better than my last boss and he’s pretty nice. We went to school together, he saw my name in the applications and said that he was gonna take me because we were friends.”

 

Law raises an eyebrow, “And you don’t mind?”

 

“No-”

 

“Traffy’s turn!” Luffy shouts bouncing out the bathroom in new clothes. “Were Traffy and Nami talking?”

 

“Just briefly,” Nami agrees, leaning her chin on her hand as Law slowly gathers up his things, looking far too thoughtful. “Hey Luffy, come here, we have another invite for a kid’s event.”

 

“Oh!” Luffy moves to join her. “Go change, Traffy! Nami and I have work real quick!”

 

Law shakes his head, because he’s almost certain he’s never going to escape this nickname, and walks into the bathroom to change. Even if he can hear them discussing travel and the time it would take to make it somewhere.

 

“You’ll have to either postpone or rearrange the photo shoot you have if you do this one. But I might be able to arrange something if you’re serious, since we are lucky enough to know the photographer this time.”

 

Nami certainly sounded like she ran everything for him.

* * *

 

“This is fancier than I was expecting,” Law mutters as Luffy leads the way towards the section that Marco had pointed up earlier with a mention of that was where they would be eating. “Is this why I have to be dressed like this?”

 

Luffy nods, arms behind his head, “There’s a dress code, it’s fancy,” he turns and that smile is back on his face. Law doesn’t know how Luffy can smile so much. “And you can reserve tables. I did that for us!”

 

“Do we need a whole table? I know your family is going to be there, aren’t they?”

 

“Oh, it’s for us. Ace and Marco are gross when they’re together,” Luffy pulls a face. “And Marco talks about you, I don’t think you’re really ready to deal with my family. There’s a lot of them and they’re a bit…” he trails off, but Law can’t imagine what he means. “But we’ll be close by if you wanna talk to them.”

 

Law nods, frowning as they reach the host and Luffy starts talking. It’s strange letting someone else take over like this and Law would like things to go back to where he was comfortable. Which was before Luffy stepped out of the bathroom in the horse car with white skintight pants on.

 

“Tired?” Luffy asks as they sit down. “Marco said that Traffy was tired.”

 

“We had to get up early, but I think we’re going to be leaving soon after dinner?” Law says slowly because he doesn’t know. Law can’t remember if Marco gave him a real time. “I hope we are at least.”

 

Luffy tips his head to the side, “But I thought Marco was gonna stay with Ace tonight? At least that’s what I heard, because he didn’t want to go back to his apartment and then come back tomorrow.”

 

“If Marco drove me here and didn’t say anything about how he wasn’t going to go home, I will apologize to your cousin, but I’m going to break his nose.”

 

“Call him and check,” Luffy offers slowly. “That way you can know for sure. If he’s not going home, will you be stuck?”

 

“I can call someone to get me,” Law answers texting Marco and frowning at him, several tables away, until he answers him. “Apparently he thought it was ‘obvious’ that he was going to be staying here. I’m going to murder him.” he taps a message to his mother asking for a ride.

 

“I’m sorry, Traffy.”

 

“I probably should have guessed, he’s horribly in love with your cousin. I don’t know that he could make such a horribly mushy face over someone before.”

 

Luffy snickers, his head ducking, “Ace is gushy too. He’s always talking about Marco and it’s gross. As if he can’t stop talking what Marco knows and pictures of Stefan. Ace loves seeing Stefan too.”

 

“Ace likes dogs, does he?” Law would tell Luffy all about Kotatsu if he was feeling petty, but he’s mostly tired and hoping he won’t have to take the metro home. That’s two hours where he’ll have to stay awake or he’ll never get home. “Do you too?”

 

“We have a number of them at the farm,” Luffy agrees brightly. “And a couple at the park. I’m not allowed to keep them in my apartments because apparently, that keeps them from doing their jobs, the barn cats too.”

 

Law grins, “So you get in trouble sneaking them in?”

 

“Aunt Rouge says that I’m going to have to sleep with them the next time that she catches me sneaking them into the house again. But I don’t have time to take care of a pet,” Luffy admits grinning as the dinner starts to arrive. “I made sure that Traffy’s allergies were given to dinner cooks!”

 

“Thank you, Luffy,” Law says softly, leaning back as the plates are placed down in front of them. “I do appreciate it a great deal.”

 

“You’re welcome! I do the same for myself. I’m not as allergic as you, but we have a few allergies and I hate having people feed me things that make me react,” Luffy says shrugging as he picks up his fork. “Is your ride coming?”

 

“Even if my mom can, she’ll be a while. She’s on shift tonight and it’ll be at least two more hours after that until she’ll get here,” Law closes his eyes, trying to think of anyone else that he can call to ask for a ride home. “Which is going to suck.”

 

“Mhm,” Luffy frowns fork partially in his mouth as he leans back in his chair. “I’ll be right back.”

 

Law isn’t even sure that he heard Luffy right, because his mouth is full and he’s already up and moving towards where the rest of his family is seated at their own table, gesturing. Law looks back to where Sabo, he thinks it’s Sabo, is suppose to be competing. He’s not actually sure if Sabo is on the field or not, but he knows someone is doing something out there.

 

“Back!” Luffy throws himself into his chair, grinning like he’s won. “We’ve got one of the beds in the horse trailer free, since me and Ace are staying in the hotel. If you don’t wanna wait hours to go home? The bed’s real nice, me and Ace sleep there when we travel.” Luffy adds quickly.

 

“You’re really offering to let me stay in the horse trailer. You don’t know me?”

 

Luffy tilts his head to the side and looks like he’s confused by the question, “But you’re Marco’s friend? And we’re friends now too! Friends help each other.”

 

“When did we become friends?” Law asks confused.

 

“We’re friends, Traffy. “

 

And that’s even stranger. Most people don’t declare someone their friend after less than an hour of knowing someone. Well, Law supposes that it’s been more than an hour since they became acquainted, but still that wasn’t too long ago.

 

“Friends.”

 

“Friends are friends,” Luffy says and Law has already decided he doesn’t understand Luffy at all. “Besides, you’re tired, aren’t you?”

 

“A little,” Law agrees, because he’s exhausted and that hour nap at lunch was not enough to make up for all the sleep he hasn’t gotten. “I can wait for my ride, it’s not going to be too late.”

 

Luffy pouts, “But if you go home, you can’t see the competition tomorrow.”

 

Law doesn’t say that he had been looking forward to that part. He had tomorrow off and he was planning to sleep most of the day, but a late night would mean less sleep. Staying, as nice as it was of Luffy to offer, meant waking up when they wanted and spending time together and Law isn’t sure he can deal with that. Not with everything else.

 

“You don’t have to,” Luffy adds and Law thinks he’s been quiet too long. “I bet you’re real tired. Marco’s real tired all the time too because of work.”

 

“It’s a great offer,” Law says finally. “But I am really tired and I want to sleep. If I can get home, then I can sleep most of the day.”

 

“A nice day,” Luffy says sighing. “I don’t get those often, but sleep is real nice.”

 

“Right? Volunteering for this got me two days and I haven’t had two consecutive days off in so long that I can’t remember it. I mean, of course I get the times off that are legally required, but those rarely allow me two in a row.”

 

Luffy nods, and Law thinks that he understands, “Even better. If you want, maybe sleep here tonight and have your ride pick you up tomorrow? That way you can get some sleep, go home and eat, and get even more sleep? Plus that means you don’t have to make the person picking you up stay up late?”

 

“I don’t want to make it hard for you to use your car and I’ll use the train to get home, if I go tomorrow.”

 

“The first competition that I have tomorrow isn’t until 2pm. The grooms will be up and they’re gonna spend some time on a date? Banshee said something like that, I think. So if you wanna sleep there, it’s not a problem. We can have brunch before you go home!”

 

“Brunch?”

 

“Food is important, Traffy.”

 

Law snorts, checking his phone and hiding a wince as he sees the time that his mom would be getting off of work and calculating when she would arrive to come and get him, “Alright. If it’s okay with the people already staying in the horse car, I’ll spend the night.”

 

“Yes!” Luffy bounces in his seat and Law ducks his head as people turn to look at them. “Sorry!” he doesn’t look sorry as he turns back to Law. “I already asked them and they said it was okay, promise. So you can stay tonight and then we can eat and go home tomorrow.”

 

“That certainly sounds like a plan,” Law gestures to the field. “Has your friend gone?”

 

“Not yet,” Luffy answers. “Sabo is two riders after this. He’ll do well, Liberty was really good in training recently and hopefully he’ll do the same here.”

 

“LIberty?”

 

“Liberty, Justice, and Freedom,” Luffy agrees. “Those are Sabo’s horses. I don’t remember their real names, at least the full ones, but he babies them, well,” he pauses. “Justice is only a year old.”

 

“Like you don’t baby yours?” Law asks and Luffy grins like it’s a joke, “Do you not?”

 

“I baby them, it was a good pick. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t baby their horses. Even Aunty Rouge does and she trains babies.”

 

Law hums in confusion, “Do you ride horses that young? You said Sabo has one that’s a year old.”

 

“No, we never ride them like this,” Luffy nods to the field. “But you can get baby horses in utero, like Justice was, and then have them trained or train them yourself, until they’re old enough to start competing. This competition is for 7 year olds, but to get to finals it’s 9 year olds and up for jumping and 8 years old for dressage.”

 

“How do they know that they’re 9?”

 

“All horses born in the same year have the same birthday depending what hemisphere you’re in. So as long as they’re born in that year, they’re 9. Here it’s January 1st, Ace likes it because he shares his birthday with his horses. In the Southern hemisphere, it’s August 1st.”

 

Law frowns, “Really?”

 

“Yeah, it makes things easier,” Luffy agrees. “Instead of having individual birthdays and trying to find out if they’ll be old enough by the time that it comes to a competition.”

 

“I see.”

 

“It’s Sabo’s turn now, if you wanna watch him.”

 

It’s interesting, watching Sabo and his horse go through what Law thinks is the same routine that the previous riders had, it looks similar if nothing else. He doesn’t know enough to tell if he’s done well or at least better than the others that he’s seen, but Luffy seems to think he’s done well if his grin is anything to go by.

 

“Sabo should place well,” Luffy whispers as they wait for the scores.

 

“How can you tell,” Law mutters staring at the field and understanding nothing. He doesn’t get it, but apparently it makes sense to Luffy, who claps enthusiastically. “Good?”

 

“Very good.”

 

“I’m glad,” Law yawns tiredly, hiding his mouth behind his hand. “Sorry.”

 

Luffy shakes his head, grinning, “That’s fine! Come on, I think you should get some sleep. Do you want me to walk you to the station? It’s not super late, but you look really tired.”

 

“I,” he yawns again, his eyes burning. “I think I’m ready to turn in for the night.”

 

“Alright, I’ll take you back to the trailer and you can get some sleep. I’ve already asked which bed is free. It’s the best one, over the entrance to the part that drives it, it’s got real thick curtains and it’s own tv, so you can have it playing to keep from hearing anything when the others come back.”

 

“They don’t want that one?”

 

“Banshee says it’s harder to sleep two people in that one and Nami’s not a fan of climbing up into beds, so it’s always like that. You don’t have to get up until you want to, but if you want to get up before the afternoon event, Ace and Marco are gonna go shopping.”

 

“Shopping?”

 

“There’s lots of places with stalls or store or something set up here,” Luffy explains. “Marco needs some things because he and Ace go riding together. And there’s usually sales and riding stuff is super durable.”

 

“I see. It depends on when I wake up, I suppose,” Law pauses at the door to the horse car. “Thank you, for letting me stay here tonight.”

 

“It’s okay! Traffy’s one of Marco’s best friends. We’ll probably go shopping at noon, we can stop by to see if you want to join us then?”

 

“That sounds like a plan,” Law agrees, “How do I set up this bed?”

 

It’s much more simple than Law thought, just pulling back a curtain and adjusting the pillows and tv volume how he liked it. Luffy even helps him close the curtains so that none of the light sneaks in through the cracks before shouting his goodbyes and reminding Law that they would stop by to see him tomorrow. Law presses his face into the pillow and falls asleep before he can even think of changing the tv channel.

* * *

 

“Did you sleep okay?” Luffy asks shifting as he watches Law peer at him tiredly from the crack in the curtain. “You can keep sleeping, but I said we would check and see if you wanted to go shopping with us before our event, remember?”

 

“It’s already noon,” Law mutters shifting backwards and hissing. “Fuck, it’s noon. I’m up.”

 

“You can sleep more. Marco says that if you don’t wanna come with us, that’s fine. He’ll send you more pictures of his puppy to make up for it and kotatsu,” Marco had said to add kotatsu as an offer, but Luffy still doesn’t know why someone would want a picture of a big table. “And we can bring you back food?”

 

Law shakes his head, sliding the curtain open more and, basically, falling to the floor, “Ow, I’m up. I need to eat more than I need sleep. I’m not suppose to miss meals, even if I’m asleep,” he picks up his backpack and frowning at the bag on it, “What is this and do I have some time to get ready?”

 

“Of course! Ace and Marco are flirting,” Luffy’s nose wrinkles because it’s gross. That’s his cousin! Ace shouldn’t be flirting. “You probably have twenty minutes before they notice that we need to get moving. And that’s from Nami! See, the note’s got a little orange on it, she signs them like that lots.”

 

“Sounds about right,” Law yawns moving towards the bathroom with both bags. “Should I bring my bag?”

 

“You don’t have to? Just your money and phone? We can stop back here before you leave to grab it. Unless you want to bring it.”

 

“I don’t want to carry it,” Law says finally. “Five minutes and I’ll be back. Thank you again, for letting me stay here.”

 

“No problem!” Luffy drops down onto a seat at the table and staring at the paperwork that Nami had probably left spread across it. It’s much better than Marco and Ace making stupid faces at each other.

 

“Where exactly are we going,” Law asks stepping out of the bathroom. “I know that you said something about shopping last night.”

 

Luffy bounces to his feet, leading the way out, “there’s shops and stalls and stuff, they’re gonna have lots of horse stuff and Ace wants to see if there’s things that he needs or maybe some colors that he’s been looking for.”

 

“Colors?” Law asks curiously.

 

“Each horse has their favorite color,” Luffy says refusing to look to his left where Ace and Marco had been flirting when he had left to grab Law. “One that you like best. Ace is looking for purple stuff for Wisteria, I think.”

 

Marco laughs, “Are we looking for purple stuff, Ace?”

 

“Maybe,” Ace agrees. “It’s nice to see you again, Law.. Coming with us?”

 

“I might as well,” Law says easily, hands shoved into his pockets and leaning back weirdly, it’s like he’s going to tilt backwards and fall, but he seems steady. “Luffy said something about a lot of shops?”

 

“Hundreds. It’s a big event and you want to be here if you’re a horse supply or something to do with horses, a lot of money to be made. You wouldn’t believe how much we’ve spent at things like this,” Ace grins. “Marco’s looking for some things too.”

 

Law hums, “You ride now, Marco?”

 

“When Ace and I go to the farm, it’s got trails that he likes,” Marco lifts up the bag that he had been carrying since Luffy had found him and Ace. “Eat this, I thought you might want something while we walk around. Shall we be off?”

 

Luffy lingers closer to Law, falling back with him as Ace leans closer to Marco, talking softly to him as they went, and he’d rather have awkward pauses and talks then hearing them be weird and gross about their relationship. At least all that Law is doing is eating and not flirting grossly.

 

“Your cousin?” Law waits for Luffy to nod. “Really likes Marco.”

 

“Yeah, he’s weird and gross about it. But he likes Marco lots,” Luffy sticks his tongue out in disgust as Ace kisses Marco. “He’s just gross.”

 

Law laughs, “I’m pretty sure that he would think you were gross if you did something similar. My sister use to tell me that she would get someone to bring home and be gross with after I got my first boyfriend.”

 

“Then I guess I can try revenge, maybe,” Luffy frowns. “Your pants have rips.”

 

“That’s the style of them, but they’re weak. I’m going to need new ones soon,” Law yawns blinking at the sun as it seems to get brighter. “But I don’t wear these much.”

 

“They’ll have jeans here. Well, breeches, riding pants, that look like them?” Luffy tilts his head to the side in thought. “I can never remember if they’re really jeans or not. But you can try some? They last a while, at least if you’re not riding in them all the time.”

 

Law nods, “I can look. Is it all riding things or?”

 

“I have no idea, I’m here for riding and horse stuff, food too,” Luffy says shrugging.

 

“That’s fair,” Law snorts. “I suppose that we’ll just have to see. What do you know is here?”

 

“Clothes, horse feed, supplements, tack, shoes. All the things you need to outfit your horse. I’m going to check out supplements and treats today, see if they have anything new or better. There’s gonna be brand reps here to answer questions.”

 

“And you have questions?”

 

Luffy nods, “Yeah. What’s in them and how they’re suppose to work. A lot of my questions are about that. I don’t want anything that might be on the doping list to be in them or I’ll fail check ins.”

 

“There’s a doping list for horses?” Law asks moving closer to avoid someone, the shopping area was always so crowded. “For the animals?”

 

“Sure, they’re athletes too. I have a TUE, a therapeutic use exemption, to use my medication for ADHD. Horses don’t really have exemptions really, it’s based on the idea if they need something banned, they shouldn’t be competing at all. But there’s two lists, one is for things that are always banned and then there’s another one that you can use but not for a certain time before, or during, a competition.”

 

Law nods slowly, “And sometimes the supplements and things have one of those?”

 

“I’ve seen some with lots of banned things. Or one or two. Which is why you have to look through all of it.” Luffy pauses, frowning at a supplement stall. “That one is bad. We don’t like that one.”

 

“No?” Law says glancing over. “It looks popular.”

 

“Don’t know about that. I know that it’s got a couple of things that are banned,” Luffy shakes his head. “They wouldn’t tell me all the ingredients. I looked it up on the FEI’s app later and it was banned. For my retired horse, it wouldn’t be bad, but for the ones I use to compete? Not good at all.”

 

“They have an app?”

 

“They’ve got several, I think. I can’t remember the exact number of them, but several. I keep the one with the drugs and doping to check everything. It helps when I want to check out supplements and the like.”

 

Law frowns, glancing to the side, “We’ve lost Ace and Marco.”

 

“They’re gonna be gross somewhere, come on,” Luffy hurries forward, to a different stall. “There’s new horse treats and I need to know all about them.”

 

* * *

 

Law watches Luffy bounce from stall to stall, talking to brand representatives and arguing about things or asking for more information. It’s interesting to watch, but he thinks it’s funnier when they walk away and the representatives look tired, like they weren’t expecting such through interrogation.

 

“This one has banned stuff,” Luffy says lifting a new bag as he rejoins Law. “But it looks like it’s better than what I’ve got currently for Gunner.”

 

“Who’s Gunner?” Law asks curiously, watching Luffy carefully arrange his bags, putting some of them inside others.

 

“Gunner Gat, he’s my horse. He’s retired now, but he’s a good boy and I want him to stay healthy. He lives at the farm now, gets to exercise and love, plus I visit all the time.”

 

“And he doesn’t have to follow rules?”

 

Luffy nods, “He’s not going to compete more. He’s just getting to eat lots of grass and have fun,” he pauses. “I have pictures?”

 

“I would love to see pictures,” Law says quickly. “Please show me.”

 

“This is Gunner Gat,” Luffy moves closer, showing Law the screen of his phone. “I’m sorry these are the newest ones, he was changing coats.”

 

“He’s adorable. That’s red?”

 

“Gunner’s a chestnut, he was Shanks’ before the accident. He let me ride Gunner when I got bigger. Ah, Shanks took this one, actually. I was brushing Gunner to get the loose fur off.”

 

Law snorts, “You’re covered in it too.”

 

“It’s hard to escape. If you brush them, you’re right up beside them and you’re reaching up sometimes too. It’s not like I was trying to make a mess of myself.”

 

“So Gunner gets to run around having fun and have baby horses?”

 

Luffy shakes his head, “Gunner’s a gelding, he can’t have babies. He’s just retired, but he’s happy and having fun. He’s got a sister? A half sister, I think, that we’re breeding. She’s not my concern, I’m not her owner.”

 

“So not all horses retire to have baby horses?” Law asks. “Because Marco mentioned Spadille might be breed when he’s older and I think he said Wisteria was gonna have babies?”

 

“Spadille’s a stallion, he can have babies, but not until he’s older. Stallions have babies, geldings can’t. And Wisteria’s a girl, she’s different. Ace loves her a lot and she won a gold for individual at the Olympics, I know he wants to breed her, but Ace is waiting until she and Spadille are both older, they’re still young,” Luffy explains. “Not all male horses are kept intact, it’s based on a test.”

 

Law nods, but isn’t sure he understands how it would work, “Wisteria’s medal, that increases her breeding?”

 

“She’s proven her ability and she was approved for breeding when she was a foal. An individual medal in the Olympics is a big deal, I heard that some people have mentioned that they would buy one of Wisteria’s foals. Ace would probably sell her foals super fast, if they have a good dad, which they will. Ace knows what he’s doing.”

 

Law wants to ask more, he has many questions and Luffy is good at explaining what Law wants to know, but-

 

“Luffy!” Ace waves, hurrying closer and shoving a bag into Luffy’s arms. “I found these and thought you would like them. They’ve got syrupy centers. Apple flavored.”

 

“Apple flavored,” Luffy asks curiously, opening the bag to peer inside. “Oh these do look nice. Thanks Ace!”

 

“I got some too, but they were selling out fast, so I grabbed their card and got you some. If they’re good, they look good and what horse doesn’t love syrup, we’ll be able to order more as we like.”

 

“What are they?” Marco asks. “You left me looking at shirts and ran off shouting about something. I did get shirts, none of the ones that you liked.”

 

Ace frowns, Law would call it a pout, but it’s not, “Aw, but Marco! They’re horse treats,” he pulls a package out of his bag, ‘horse snacks’ in bright vibrant yellow on it. “I saw syrup filling and I couldn’t let them sell out. Horses love syrup.”

 

“They do?” Law asks.

 

“They love it,” Ace repeats. “I don’t get it, but if you let them, they will eat nothing but these. Don’t let them, bad plan, but they’ll try.”

 

“And apples too,” Luffy adds shifting the new bag in his grasp. “They like both and that means, if these are half as good as they sound, they’ll absolutely adore them. Do you wanna look at pants now, Law? You said you wanted to look.”

 

“I would like to. Unless you have plans for what we need to do?”

 

Luffy shakes his head, “I want to look too. Always good to have more for training. Ace, are you and Marco going to come with us?”

 

“I think that it’s going to have to wait,” Marco states shaking his head as he looks at his watch something soft beeping, “It’s time for you two to go back and get ready for your competition.”

 

Ace hisses through his teeth and Luffy pauses, absolutely still for one long moment, “Fuck, we have to go. We’ll be back, but we have to move. Come on Luffy!”

 

“Want to join me for lunch?” Marco asks after the two have all but vanished. “I’ll pay, think of it as an apology for not explicitly stating that I was going to stay here. We can go shopping for breeches afterwards?”

 

“Deal,” Law yawns, rolling his shoulders. “Where are we going? I assume we’re going to end up watching them compete?”

 

Marco nods, “We are, but there’s time. At least a little bit. I had Ace book a table for us, they’ll join after they’ve finished competing.”

 

“How long would that take?” Law asks curiously, falling into step with him. “Remember, I’ve never been to one of these before.”

 

“It’s roughly an hour. From start to finish, they’ll spend a half hour warming up before that. So technically an hour and a half before they join us for lunch. We’ve got half an hour before my reservation,” Marco says frowning at the bags he’s holding. “We’re going to stop and drop these off before we do anything else.”

 

“Don’t want to carry all of Ace’s bags?”

 

“Don’t want to keep them for hours and then carrying them again when Ace is done and we have more shopping to do.”

 

Law tilts his head to the side in acknowledgement, “That makes sense. You want to get more breeches too, right?”

 

“Of course. We’ll leave these at the horse trailer and then make our way towards the restaurant. They’ll join us after and then, more shopping.”

 

“Lead the way,” Law yawns, shaking his head. “I’m not even that tired anymore, I don’t know why I keep yawning.”

 

“Because you sleep less than you eat and you know how little you eat,” Marco answers leading the way back to the horse trailer. “I did think that you knew I would be staying. The competitions close to home are always good to spend with Ace.”

 

“You’re so sappy. Worse than a romantic movie.”

 

Marco laughs, “Get the door. And I’m not that sappy, I like Ace. A lot.”

 

“Oh, I know, you’re very vocal about that, Marco,” Law rolls his eyes, opening the door and holding it as Marco steps in and moves towards the table, places the bags down onto it. “And you bought him a kitten, without asking.”

 

“It’s a gift and what else can I do? Ace likes to get me gifts and they’re expensive most of the time, because he goes off of ‘I like it and Marco will like it’. A kitten isn’t expensive, but it’s something that Ace will love.”

 

“Sappy.”

 

“One day, you’re going to fall in love with someone and I’ll have a great time watching you be a disgusting sappy mess. Come on, we can see warm ups start and see them walk before going to eat.”

 

“More food sounds nice, thanks by the way, for the wrap.”

 

“I figured you hadn’t eaten, what are friends for?”

 

* * *

 

“They did good,” Law whispers as they clap, watching Luffy get his scores. He can see Ace petting his own horse for all the good work it had done. Law still isn’t sure what is happening when they ride around the ring “Right?”

 

“Luffy’s doing better than Ace this competition. But that happens. Tell Luffy that he’s done well when he joins us, if he’s taken you to feed his horse carrots, he’ll want to hear it,” Marco says leaning back in his chair to wave down one of the waiters and ordering several of the smaller items on the menu.

 

“Still hungry?”

 

Marco laughs, “No, Ace and Luffy will be hungry and they have to order, which means that it’s best for me to order some things for them to snack on until their food is ready. Ace usually eats enough for two people after competing.”

 

“And Luffy?” Law asks before remembering how much he had eaten last night after competing. “Never mind, I’ll assume a lot.”

 

“Well, you have to remember, they’re athletes. Even if the horse does all the work that you see- the running and the jumping- doesn’t mean that they aren’t doing a lot of work,” Marco says shrugging lightly as he leans back in his seat. “Not to mention, they do have to keep in shape too. Ace spends a lot of time at the gym.”

 

“Isn’t that how you met?”

 

“We met because I thought yoga would help me feel less like dying after work and Ace was using it to be more limber. For horseback riding, get your thoughts out the gutter.”

 

“I like how you knew what I was going to say, but I’m still going to think it. Even if that’s not why he was in class for it. How long will they take to get here?”

 

Marco taps his fingers on the table, obviously counting, “Usually twenty minutes at the most.  Cool the horses off, which is something that needs to be done, feed the horses treats, which is very important in a different way, and then change and get here. Changing is the fastest part.”

 

“He’s right,” Ace says appearing out of nowhere and leaning in to steal a kiss from Marco. “Dressing is easy, pulling on new clothes? Simple. Telling your horse that they were a good boy and you’re proud of him? Takes a while.”

 

“That’s where Luffy is, isn’t he?” Marco asks as Ace takes his seat and leans against Marco. Law doesn’t comment when one of Marco’s hands vanished under the table, he’s pretty sure they’re only holding hands and Luffy will be here soon enough, he doesn’t need that. “Telling his horse what a great job they did?”

 

“Yeah, ran into him at the horse car, he wanted to grab some of the syrup treats I gave him earlier to see if those are well liked,” Ace agrees, yawning. “I’m so tired.”

 

Marco smiles, his other hand trailing through Ace’s hair, “No sleeping, we have more shopping to do and then we’ll see.”

 

“Ugh,” Ace sighs. “Breeches, right?”

 

“Breeches. And you wanted to see if they had bandages for Wisteria since they normally have limited edition colors here,” Marco adds. “Thank you.”

 

Their waiter nods, setting the plates down carefully, “Anything else?”

 

“Yes,” Ace says leaning forward and rambling off an order that sounds like he’s done this before. Considering that he’s probably competed here before, Law wouldn’t be surprised if he had. “Please.”

 

“Yes sir.”

 

Law doesn’t actually know what he’s suppose to say, it’s weird and Ace looks almost like he’s going to fall asleep at any moment, head falling onto Marco’s shoulder and sighing tiredly. Should he say something? Normally, when it was just him and Marco, he would have a comment or remark, but he’s less sure what to do when Ace is there.

 

“I-”

 

“Traffy!” Luffy shouts, wincing slightly as everyone turns to look at him. “Sorry! Traffy, did you see?”

 

“You running in shouting?” Law deadpans. “Because I did. I think we all did.”

 

Luffy pouts, dropping into the last chair at the table, “Mean! I won and Traffy’s being mean to me. Tell him to be nice, Marco!”

 

“Law listens to no one,” Marco says grinning as Law scowls at him. “Except his parents and that’s only sometimes. You did an excellent job, Luffy. Congratulations.”

 

“Thanks!” Luffy grins, leaning forward to steal one of the snacks that Marco had ordered. “They liked the snacks that you got today, Ace. I’m glad I didn’t take the whole bag or it would have been bad.”

 

Ace snorts, “Yeah, I had Deuce keep them and poured some into my hand out of sight, otherwise, I’m sure it wouldn’t have been great.”

 

“Why?” Law asks. “Would they have tried to eat the whole thing?”

 

“Well that too, but mostly horses will try to put their heads into the bag. They know there’s treats in the bag, so they just need to get into it to get them. Here,” Ace pulls out his phone flipping through pictures. “This is Lord Tyger and treats.”

 

Law takes the phone and grins, because Lord Tyger’s head is in the treat bag, “He put his head in?”

 

“He had to get all the treats. Horses think that if there’s a bag of treats, they need the whole bag. All of it. It was the end of the bag and he hadn’t eaten all the rest, so it wasn’t too bad,” Ace says taking his phone back.

 

“Like Elly and the carrots yesterday,” Law says frowning because he’s almost sure that he’s heard that name before. He would like to imagine Lord Tyger wasn’t a common name.

 

“Uh-huh,” Luffy agrees, swallowing whatever is in his mouth. “Too much of a good thing. And horses don’t have control like people.”

 

“People don’t have control,” Law mutters. “You wouldn’t believe the people we get in the hospital who can’t control themselves. We are just suppose to be better.”

 

Lunch is nice. Even if Law’s already eaten and it’s just waiting for Ace and Luffy to finish up, not that that stops Marco from trying to tempt Law with snacks that he actually can eat until they’re both done and ready to leave.

 

Law regrets stepping outside, it’s too bright and just as loud as it had been when they had been shopping earlier.

 

“What were we planning before lunch?” Luffy asks bouncing by Law’s side. “I forgot.”

 

“Buying breeches,” Ace answers pressing his hands to his eyes and yawning. “I know that Marco wanted more and I think Law was going to look at them.”

 

“I want more,” Marco agrees, one arm around Ace’s waist. “They’re comfortable and easier to deal with at work.”

 

“Are these what you’ve been wearing to work?” Law asks, eyes narrowed as he tries to make the glare off the tents and rooftops coming into his eyes. “Because you’ve been talking about how much better they are and not telling me what they are.”

 

Marco shrugs, just like he always does when he’s done something and doesn’t care, “You never actually asked.”

 

“You’re the worst kind of friend.”

 

It doesn’t even take much time to get to a shop that is selling breeches, because Luffy corrects Law every time that he calls them pants, and more colors and several styles more than Law had been expecting. Including some that looked like jeans and others that were jeans.

 

“Any opinion on brands,” Law asks frowning at sizes in too small print and hoping this is not the start of him needing glasses. He’s already mistaken for his father enough, that would make it worse. “Or are they all good?”

 

“These,” Luffy taps three pairs. “Last longer in my opinion. And this one is one of my sponsors, so I like them more.”

 

“I didn’t know horse riders were sponsored,” Law says laying the brand that Luffy claimed as his sponsor over his arm and moving on to look more. “You never see any brands on them.”

 

Luffy laughs, “What are you talking about? I have branding on lots of my stuff. It’s just gotta follow the rules. They’re not huge, not like I’ve seen at other places, but they exist.”

 

“Good to know. I just assumed that you bought everything right out.”

 

“Horses are super expensive, Traffy. And you need at least six at a time. Well,” Luffy pauses. “Not all of them are to be ridden right at that moment. I have three?” he pauses. “I think I have three that can currently compete. And a few that are too young and being trained. You can’t just retire a horse and then start from scratch. Sponsors give you money and that money buys horses.”

 

“Doesn’t your family breed horses?”

 

Luffy frowns, looking like he’s trying to think, “We do, but what if I want to buy a horse from outside? I have to pay if there’s a horse outside our facility that was bred to one of horses, they get profit from sales. Just because we breed them doesn’t mean they’re absolutely free. But the money also helps with tack and health concerns and anything else that might happen.”

 

“I suppose that makes sense, I just assumed that all the horses were yours if they were breed by your family,” Law sighs. “I’m going to try these on, I’ll be a minute.”

 

“Hurry, or Ace and Marco will beat us to boots!”

 

Law rolls his eyes, taking his time just to spite Luffy, finishing faster than he expected and putting the ones that he didn’t like on the rack to be put back.

 

“Wanna pay first?” Luffy asks still standing by the gloves, turning a pair over in his hands to check them for something. “They moved next door because Ace saw some bandages he liked.”

 

“Bandages?” Law asks, heading for the cash. “Was he hurt?”

 

“For Wisteria. They’re pretty purple colored. They’re for wrapping the horse’s legs,” Luffy explains joining him with the gloves he had been playing with. “My sponsor doesn’t make them and my training ones are getting too worn.”

 

“Does your sponsor send you things?”

 

“Sure, all sponsors do. We’ll head to see how much Ace got in bandages after, he’s always excited for purple.”

 

Law nods, “Purple is Wisteria?”

 

“Ace thinks she looks prettiest in purple. He has other colors for her too, but he likes purple best,” Luffy says taking his bag and leading the way. “Horses only see blue and yellow, did you know that?”

 

“Does that mean they can see green?”

 

“That is the best color,” Luffy agrees. “It means food. They love green and they always try to eat it. Not that they won’t try to eat other things, but green is the best.”

 

“Does that mean you can’t wear green shirts?”

 

“Not unless you want to be nibbled.”

 

Ace waves as he spots them, still looking at bandages, “Sorry, I found more for Spadille and some that I thought might look good on Fer and of course the purple for Wisteria.”

 

“I’m here to hold them,” Marco says shaking his head. “We’ll be a bit longer, if you want to head over to look at the boots without us?”

 

“I need some too, and they have a good color selection,” Luffy says already grabbing a pack of red bandages and reading the label before grabbing one from another shelf. “We can get some and go together.”

 

Law shoves his hands into his pockets as Luffy starts to pile his own arms full of bandages the same way that Ace is stacking them in Marco’s, “Do you need a lot of them?”

 

“Well,” Luffy frowns. “There’s three kinds. One set is worn for cool downs, in the stalls, which get messy. This one is for playtime, when we turn them out into pastures to play, and these will get gross even faster! And these are condition training.”

 

“So they’re something that needs to be replaced more frequently?”

 

“A lot more. But there’s also the fact that Ace likes to keep a stock, which is bigger than my reserve!”

 

Ace turns and rolls his eyes, “Luffy, I keep maybe four sets of each for each horse at any given time. You keep three. Who has the better plan here?” he pauses. “And these are limited edition purple ones, of course I’m going to get more than I would normally. They’re _limited_.”

 

“They do limited editions?” Law asks curiously.

 

“Sure, limited edition colors and the like. Sparkly purple, lilac too, is usually in limited, which is why I purchase so many, you never know when you’ll get more in stock,” he grins. “Kids love sparkly bandages on the horses.”

 

“Do many kids watch you ride?”

 

Ace shrugs, “We do promotional events. Things to let kids see and show them things. It brings in money and students. It’s fun for the horses too.”

 

Law nods, watching them continue to go through their choices and checking them over before moving to the register to purchase them. They move further into the maze of stalls after, reaching the boots that they had been talking about.

 

“Is this normal?” Law mutters to Marco as Luffy and Ace both start to talk excitedly as they look them over. “Because I’ve never seen someone get so excited about boots.”

 

“They’re riding boots,” Marco says shaking his head, but he’s smiling fondly. “Ace loves them. I swear everytime I see him, he’s got a new pair.” he pauses. “That’s hyperbole, but you know what I mean.”

 

“I see. They’re,” Law raises an eyebrow as Ace picks up on of the displays and starts to look it over, reading the small paper card clipped to it. “He’s reading it?”

 

Marco nods, “Ace says that some boots are good for only one thing. I think he said something about paddock boots? Which are only that and not riding boots too. I wasn’t paying much attention,” he shrugs. “We were on the phone and Stefan had gotten one of my slippers.”

 

“You look like the kind of man to wear slippers.”

 

“Just because I like to have warm feet doesn’t mean anything. Luffy’s got his hands on some too.”

 

Law glances to where Luffy’s moved away from Ace, a different boot in his hands as he moved it back and forth, testing something before setting it back down and moving on, “Is this normal?”

 

“Ace has only taken me shopping with him like this once to get boots for me before we went to the farm. Otherwise, no. I’ll keep an eye on time. They have another competition in a few hours and I wouldn’t want them to miss it.”

 

“That would upset them. Do they buy boots?”

 

“They’re getting an idea for design,” Marco answers. “They wouldn’t compete without custom boots. This also lets them look at brands that accept custom orders too. If Ace buys something, it’ll be for me.”

 

Law snorts, watching them both stop before the same pair of boots-

 

“Marco, can you come here?” Ace asks gesturing to one of the benches for him to sit down on. “Try these.”

 

“Ugh,” Law startles at the sound, Luffy suddenly at his side. “Gross.”

 

“Gross?”

 

Luffy nods, “Ace and I like the same boots all the time. Cause we grew up together and all,” he gestures to encompass something that Law thinks he understands, but can’t explain. “But he doesn’t like those. He likes those for Marco.”

 

“And that’s different?”

 

“Yeah, it means Ace thinks Marco’s hot in those boots,” Luffy says in disgust. “And I liked that design. I can never use it now.”

 

Law doesn’t laugh, but only because he knows that Luffy will look betrayed by him doing so, trying to look anywhere but where Marco is pulling on the boots that Ace had handed him. It’s gross, like one of those sappy romances that Lami liked to watch when she was sad, Law is going to spend all of lunch on Monday teasing Marco about how disgusting and in love he was, while looking at more pictures of Kotatsu.

 

“These are for later,” Ace says returning with the boots bagged up. “Shall we?”

 

“Ace is gross!”

 

“If you say so. I’m sure that you’ll be gross one day.”

 

“Will not,” Luffy sticks his tongue out in disgust. “Come on, there’s more to see!”

 

* * *

 

“I can’t believe you,” Law says, crossing his arms over his chest and slouching in his seat as he watches the current competitor jumping. “It’s already evening. I have been here all day.”

 

Marco smirks, “I haven’t done shit, Law. You were the one that decided to join us for lunch and shopping twice. You could have left at any moment, you know.”

 

“But I wanted to see the breeches and Luffy has so much information about horses. I mean, I’ve lived closed to the MFEC for the entirety of my life and I haven’t learned half as much as I have today. And you know that I love animals.”

 

“You do. I think you like animals more than you like people.”

 

“People are annoying. Animals are sweet and they just want your affection.”

 

“We can take you to the station after this if you’re that interested in going home. Or you can wait until we feed you again and then head home.”

 

Law straightens as Luffy leads one of his horses onto the field, he had promised to watch him, “I do like being fed food that won’t kill me and you’re good at giving me that. And Luffy might let me see his horse again. I did like feeding Elly carrots.”

 

“Why don’t you just ask to visit the MFEC? I’m sure that they would let you come and check things out. See horses and feed them even.”

 

“It’s an idea. If I have time later, but we’ll have to wait and see. How is he even doing?”

 

“Well,” Marco answers frowning at the information on display that means nothing to Law. “He’s doing quite well. I think he’s trying to prove how good he is, since he couldn’t make it to the Olympics like Ace did. Not that Luffy isn’t good to begin with, but I mean, if your sibling makes it to the Olympics, it’s a lot of pressure on you to do well too.”

 

“Are you reading to much into this?”

 

“Entirely possible. Izou’s been leaving me voicemails about how I need to be careful to not let people force Haruta into being me because I’m a prodigy and Haruta is smart, but it’s not fair,” Marco shakes his head and sighs. “Been worrying about that.”

 

Law laughs, “Sure. Explain the screen to me.”

 

“Top one is the timer. The time starts on a bell and runs for 45 seconds or until they cross the starting line. It’ll then start the time of how long it takes for them to complete the course. If something happens during the course and you hear a bell, they have to stop because something has changed.”

 

“Changed?”

 

“Either someone has gotten onto the course, you’ve lost something important, but mostly if you’re eliminated for some reason. Something like that. That one there is for faults, something like knocking one of the bars, poles if you wanna be specific, down from the obstacles or going over the time that the course is suppose to take.”

 

“Are there a lot of faults?”

 

“A horse refusing to jump, if they touch the water or the edge at the water jump, or going over the time,” Marco answers. “Two refusals to jump gets you eliminated.”

 

“And that means you’re out?”

 

“Yep, at least for this competition. If you sign up for more than one, it won’t remove you from all of them.”

 

Law hums watching as the next person started, Luffy hadn’t had anything on the counter for faults. At least he thought Luffy hadn’t. He hadn’t been paying attention honestly, too busy watching the horse jumping instead of the information on display.

 

“I’m exhausted,” Law sighs, frowning at the new person in the arena. “Do we care about this one?”

 

“No,” Marco answers, leaning forward and frowning as he watches the rider. “He’s a little aggressive with the whip.”

 

“You think so?” Law asks.

 

“The rules on whips are very specific. Three hits in a row, breaking the skin, or excessive force will get you disqualified. Which can include hitting them in the head. I’m sure the judges have already noticed.”

 

“That’s pretty specific.”

 

“The rule is there to protect the horses, people would be very vicious with the whip back in the day. There’s another one called the blood rule. Basically if the steward finds blood on your horse after your round, you’re eliminated. There’s some kind of allowance for blood in the mouth, but I don’t remember the wording for it.”

 

“Huh, weird.”

 

Marco nods, “I know it used to be disqualification for the blood, but it was considered too harsh because spurs will sometimes scratch bug bites or something and there would be blood. He’s out.”

 

“How can you-” Law stops as a bell sounds. “Huh, you were right.”

 

“The reaction can be a bit delayed, since you see it and it’s not an instant thing,” Marco says leaning back in his seat. “But that means Ace will go and then we’ll be done except for the prize and victory lap.”

 

“So not horribly long left, that’s good.”

 

Marco nods and Law is glad for the announcements. It’s interesting and he enjoys hearing about it, but he’s mostly here for the horses. He likes the horses, they’re cute and soft, at least to the touch. Which is what is important to him.

 

“Please tell me there’s going to be less people around for dinner,” Law says tiredly. “I’m not a fan of big crowds and I’ve been in them all day.”

 

“Probably not. Windsor’s a big deal around here, Law. Unless we get food and head back to the horse trailer or one of the hotel rooms, there’s going to be more people. That’s how it works,” he pauses, glancing up and Law doesn’t know what he’s doing looking at Law like that. “If you really feel uncomfortable, I can see if Ace and Luffy would mind going somewhere quieter?”

 

“Please.”

 

“Then after they come join us again,” Marco says leaning back and watching the last of the competitors take their turns.

 

Law doesn’t really listen to the announcements, but it’s not hard to see that Ace and Luffy had both placed well, even if he had no idea where they placed exactly. He doesn’t expect them to make it out of the stables anytime soon, not even with Marco texting them as they wait. It’s almost twenty minutes before Ace appears, dragging Luffy, who’s whining about telling his horse what a good job they did.

 

“You give them enough treats?” Marco asks, raising an eyebrow as Luffy keeps trying to tug himself away from Ace’s grip.

 

“Luffy was talking about petting Merry for hours,” Ace explains. “And we have guests. I’m sure that Law wants to go home-”

 

“Traffy wants to leave?”

 

Law yawns, “I do have to go home.”

 

“But you haven’t met Rain!” Luffy pouts, finally going limp and dropping to the ground when Ace lets him go. “If you go then you won’t get to see Rain!”

 

“Rain?”

 

“Luffy’s third horse,” Marco answers quietly. “Windsor has a rule that horses can only compete in two competitions during the event. Three horses means that you can use one at the start and the finish without overworking them.”

 

“You have three horses?”

 

“Yep! I’ve got Elly and Merry and Rain. And more at home,” Luffy adds quickly. “Those are just the ones that I have to compete with. Did Traffy think that I only had two?”

 

“You only mentioned Elly and Merry.”

 

“Because Rain was sleeping! Rain is a sleepy horse. After we compete if I don’t have treats, Rain goes to sleep and won’t wake up for any reason,” Luffy pauses. “But Rain wants treats as soon as he wakes up.”

 

“I’m not arguing about this,” Law decides with a finality that he thinks the others should listen to. “I was promised more food, in a quieter setting, and then home.”

 

Ace nods, “Deuce said. Not gonna be anywhere here that’s quiet, not with events still going and there still another day left. There’s a couple of places that have decent take-away and I think I have room service? I forgot to look, honestly.”

 

“I do!”

 

“Luffy has it, so I likely do. A preference?”

 

“I have no idea. I don’t have a preference other than quieter.”

 

“Well, the hotel’s further from the train station, so if you want to leave afterwards, it might be ideal for us to go to the trailer. Votes on dinner?”

 

“Something that won’t kill me.”

 

Ace frowns at him, “Law is no longer allowed to vote on meals. Of course we’re going to hunt down something he can eat, that’s just silly. Anyone else?”

 

“The meat place!”

 

“Sounds good to me,” Marco shrugs because Law knows him well enough to know that he doesn’t really care what he eats as long as it doesn’t cause reactions and there’s enough to satisfy him. “Ace?”

 

“You’re killing me,” Ace says tiredly. “Meat it is. If you two kill Law, I’ll laugh myself sick.”

 

“I know how to avoid death!”

 

Luffy smiles up at him, “But Traffy, Marco says one day you’ll be allergic to air!”

 

“Marco needs to shut his mouth, he just agreed to something called the meat place.”

 

“You had an allergic reaction to the smell of mint six weeks ago,” Marco reminds Law, with a frown. “And not a single reaction to it since. The smell, Law. And protein is important after exercise. Kindly stop being a brat.”

 

“I’m going to shove you into a garbage can at work one day,” Law says already imagining it. “And then I’ll roll it down the staircase.”

 

“This is for Mrs. Sentson, isn’t it?”

 

“I will never pay you back enough for the horror of Mrs. Sentson.”

 

“Who?” Luffy demands getting up. “Is Mrs. Sentson?”

 

“A very cranky old woman who comes into my office weekly to complain that her medical expenses are too much, even though we have universal health care! And insists that I’m not trying to make her feel better because I refuse to do a surgery because she thinks she knows something after going onto WebMD,” Law answers. “Marco shoved her off on me two months ago because he was asked to take on a new patient and didn’t have time for her anymore.”

 

“Cranky rabbit lady,” Ace agrees.

 

“Rabbit?”

 

“She’s got twelve pet rabbits, Law. I gave her to you because half of my appointments with her were her showing me pictures of twelve mostly identical rabbits. You like animals, I thought you wouldn’t mind.”

 

Law feels cheated, “You mean I could have pictures of rabbits? And I’m getting absolutely none? How dare she,” he’s already planning something to get a chance at those rabbits. He needs pictures. “Is that sign made of meat?”

 

The sign is hanging from the window of the building that Luffy has been leading them to and is billowing steam, each letter made up of a different type of meat.

 

“They freeze it first,” Luffy answers bouncing through the door. “Come on!”

 

The inside is not made of meat, which Law had briefly thought it would be after seeing the sign, a large menu hanging up on the wall behind the counter.

 

“Here,” Ace hands him a pamphlet, “It’s got each dish and ingredients listed. I’ve used it myself,  should hopefully be something in there you can eat or,” he taps the back. “They do special requests for those with medical issues.”

 

“Outstanding.”

 

There’s a few dishes that Law can pick from, which is something, most of the time he’ll be lucky to find one. It doesn’t even take hours to get it complete like he had thought, collecting everything and heading to the horse trailer.

 

“Are you really going home?” Luffy asks pouting at Law from over the table as Ace devours his dinner faster than Marco can help him get it out of its packaging. “We have two more competitions tomorrow and you’ll get to see Rain if you stay.”

 

“Are you bribing me with a horse?” Law asks setting his sandwich down and raising an eyebrow. “A horse?”

 

“You liked Elly.”

 

Law thinks Marco mutters something about biting, but ignores him, “I like animals, Luffy. More than I like people. And I was suppose to go home last night, do you not remember?”

 

“But it’s fun here. And we can look around more and you can ride back with us tomorrow after we finish our last competition. Ace wants to leave as soon after that as we can, so it’s not going to be too late.”

 

“You are very insistent about me staying.”

 

“Marco and Ace are less gross when there’s other people around,” Luffy whispers like it’s a secret. “Ow!”

 

“We’re not gross,” Ace states swiping at his mouth to clean sauce dripping down his chin. “Oh gross, should have used a napkin.”

 

“They are pretty gross.”

 

“Please don’t leave me alone with them,” Luffy pleads, eyes wide and hopeful. “Please?”

 

“Fine, I’ll stay. But,” he pauses trying to think of a condition. “I want to see the horses again. They were good and I would like more.”

 

“Deal!”

 

* * *

 

“Ace won that one, right?” Law asks watching the heights of the obstacles rise and another team moving the finish line. “Because I think that’s what just happened, but I could be wrong.”

 

“Ace won. I’m not surprised, that was St. Elmo, he’s,” Marco pauses and looks like he’s trying to find an explanation that isn’t a meme. Law knows what that face means. “He’s the gotta go fast meme.”

 

Law nods, “Well, he was certainly going fast. His name is St. Elmo?”

 

“St. Elmo’s Fire. You’ll find that Ace likes fire, even if he had to give up on it after awhile, fire names are hard. Apparently. Luffy was using Rain, he’s a sweetheart and fast but St. Elmo is faster.”

 

“He’s Sonic the horse,” Law agrees.

 

Marco snorts, “something like that. They’re basically rolling straight into the next competition, which means neither Luffy or Ace will come to check up on us. It’s only twenty five minutes and that’s going to be taken up by the horses.”

 

“Ah,” Law frowns. “Are there dogs?”

 

“I have no idea what this is. Schedule says something about meet the hounds, but no one would give me an answer as to what that means,” Marco states shaking his head. “I’m running to the restroom, hold my seat?”

 

“I’ll put the apples there,” Law promises already moving the bag of apples he had bought earlier into the spot. Marco had mentioned having snacks for Ace and Luffy after, since they wouldn’t have much, if anytime, to eat something between rounds and there had been a stall selling apples before they entered the arena. If they didn’t finish them all, Law would take them home for his sister’s latest baking stint. “Go.”

 

Law thinks that Marco laughs at him as he watches the dogs, hounds, cross the field with some kind of chatter over the PA system. Not that it’s important. Marco is even back before the last of the hounds have cleared off the field.

 

“This is the last competition, right?” Law asks. “Because I don’t want to finish this and have Luffy insist that I need to stay for tomorrow’s whatever.”

 

“No, I promise. This is it. This is the Grand Prix, the biggest prize of the event. After this, and taking care of the horses, I’ll drive us home. Hopefully avoiding too much traffic.”

 

“Oh thank god, I can’t live with being tricked into another day.”

 

“You weren’t even tricked, you heard about a horse and decided to stay all on your own. I, Luffy, and Ace had nothing to do with your own life choices. What did your parents have to say about you staying twice?”

 

“I’m too afraid to look. They probably think I’m dating or something else just as horrifying.”

 

“I’m sure. They’re starting.”

 

Law rolls his eyes, because he knows that means Marco wants to focus on them and watch, but Law is here for the horses and he’s gotten good at ignoring the announcers, or putting his headphones in and making it so he doesn’t have to hear anything but whatever he has next on his playlist.

 

This one seems to take longer, he’ll ask Marco when they race around the inside of the arena, he’s usually willing to answer Law’s questions at that point.

 

“Who won?” Law asks when the lap finishes. “And was that longer?”

 

“Luffy got third and Ace was eighth. Not bad at all,” Marco answers. “And there was a jump-off, basically tie breakers. Do you want to get out of the stands?”

 

“Please,” Law agrees, grabbing his bag and following Marco down and out of the stands to a quieter corner. “They did well over all, then?”

 

“Oh yes, but that’s expected. Ace won an Olympic medal not too long ago and Luffy’s a Monkey.”

 

“The family is that big in horse competitions?”

 

Marco nods, “Garp, Luffy’s grandfather, is a terrifying man with several Olympic medals and was considered one of the best riders in England. He got into an accident while on horseback, was told he was never riding again, and went to the Olympics again to win big.”

 

“And it’s not just him, is it?”

 

“Roger, Ace’s dad, is also an Olympic champion. Rouge, his mother, was famous in her own right before marrying into the family, I believe she and Roger met at the Olympics. Luffy’s father, Dragon, is an Olympian. It’s just a number of Olympians in a familial group.”

 

“Jesus,” Law whispers rubbing his face. “That’s terrifying, Marco.”

 

“Their grandmother, Garp’s second wife, was their main vet until the last few years,” Marco adds. “The first wife was a fairly decorated rider before her death.”

 

“That’s not helpful at all. I’m going to spend the rest of my life terrified of the whole family. They’re like horse royalty.”

 

Marco laughs, “I’ve heard them called that. It doesn’t help that Sabo, the blond from the medical tent, he gets mixed into that too. He does dressage and he’s very good. I know less about that then I do about jumping.”

 

“And they like this.”

 

“Ace loves it. He loves his horses and he loves competing, for all that some days he doesn’t want to go to them because sleep. But you understand how sleep is.”

 

“I do,” Law agrees. “Is it normal to take this-”

 

“Traffy!” Luffy shouts, slamming into his side hard enough to jolt him dangerously off balance. “Traffy, did you see?”

 

“I was watching,” Law promises. “I thought it would take longer to give your horses treats? And don’t you need to feed treats to both your horses?”

 

“I was gonna,” Luffy pouts, still squeezing Law too tightly. “But Ace stole all the apples.”

 

Marco snorts, “Ace did?”

 

“He said Wisteria needed them and Elmo too, but I need apples for Rain and Elly! Elly did so, so good! And so did Rain, but now I don’t have treats!”

 

Law knows what he’s going to do before he lifts up the apples upt, “Would these work?”

 

“Apples!” Luffy shouts and Law can’t breath because Luffy has all but crushed him. “I can really have them for Elly and Rain?”

 

“I did buy them so that you and Ace would have something to snack on until we got you real food. If you think that the two of you can wait, I have no issues with you giving the apples to your horses.”

 

“Thank you!”

 

Luffy is happier than Law expected, all smiles and bright eyes- Law shakes the thought from his head as he gives the bag to Luffy.

 

“Is Rain the one that I haven’t met?”

 

“Yeah, you wanna meet him? Rain’s a good boy, I love him. I think if I take him to the pasture that I can sneak you close enough to see him. They’re not as picky about ids as the stables and if you’re with me, it might be okay?”

 

“I thought we were leaving as soon as this was done?” Law asks, glancing at Marco.

 

“If you two want to feed Rain, I have a pass into the stables and I’ll go pet Elmo and Wisteria with Ace,” Marco answers locking his phone. “Ace says that he only has two hands and that’s two hands less than he needs to give enough pats.”

 

Law snorts, “That many?”

 

“Wisteria is a good girl, she’s just not happy at the moment. And Elmo got first place, he needs to be told he was a good boy. They’re just jealous of each other.”

 

“Jealous they’re not getting petted?”

 

“They’re half siblings,” Marco shrugs. “Ace says they’ve got sibling rivalry. I think he’s reaching and it’s normal horse jealousy. But go, I’m leaving you both.”

 

“Come on,” Luffy says, one hand wrapping around Law’s wrist. “We’re going to get Rain. Well,” he frowns, still leading the way but slower now that the crowds were lessening. “Wait here. They won’t let you in and I don’t think Rain will want to pick you up from the trailer.”

 

“I’ll be here.”

 

Law ignores the looks he gets, this close to the stables, but not going closer, sliding through the messages on his phone and sending a quick one to his sister. She kept sending winking faces and there wasn’t any reason for her to do that. Almost as bad as the pointed questions from their parents wanting to know who he was hanging out with.

 

“Sorry,” Luffy says grinning brightly, leading a large horse closer to where Law was standing. “Law, this is Rain. He’s a little cranky because he just woke up and now he wants those apples.”

 

“Well, lead the way so that we can give him what he wants.”

 

“Elly was getting snuck treats by Banshee, she’s one of the grooms, so he’ll be happy. I gave her some of the apples to give him,” Luffy says bouncing happily as he leads the way. “Marco says that you might come see the horses when we’re in London?”

 

“If you’re fine with me coming to see them.”

 

“Traffy is nice. Most people get annoyed by me talking about horses by now,” Luffy says earnestly, showing his id badge to a guard who waves them both past to the pastures. “And you ask questions too! Which is real nice.”

 

“I like animals more than I like people and you know a lot about them. Can I pet Rain?”

 

“Yeah! Rain likes pats here,” Luffy says patting Rain’s neck. “You can feed him an apple too?”

 

“I would like that.”

* * *

 

“Are we stopping to eat on the way home?” Law asks leaning against the horse trailer as they wait for Ace and Luffy to change. “Because you said they would be hungry.”

 

“We are,” Marco promises, frowning at his phone. “My family still thinks that Ace isn’t real.”

 

Law smirks, “Still?”

 

“At this rate, I’m going to take him home to meet my family and they’re going to talk about how dedicated we are to this ruse. Which is what Thatch just commented on my picture with. You would think that at this point, I’ve been pretty explicit about dating Ace.”

 

“You’re faking it to make them stop worrying about you.”

 

Marco pauses, glancing at something behind Law, his eyes going wider as he fumbles to lock his phone. Law glances behind him, eyebrow raising as he catches sight of Ace stepping out the trailer.

 

“It’s always sweatpants,” Luffy says shaking his head as he bounces down the steps past Ace and turning to look off into the distance. “They’re so gross, if you don’t look away, they’ll start kissing again.”

 

“Again?”

 

“They kiss a lot. I bet that Wistera thinks they’re gross too. They probably did that,” he gestures behind him to where Law can just see Marco leaning in as he turns slightly to avoid seeing that. “The whole time that they were petting her and giving her treats.”

 

Law raises an eyebrow, because that doesn’t sound like the Marco that he’s used to seeing, but it does sound like what he’s seen this far this weekend, “I just want to eat and go home. It was nice to see the horses, but it would be nice to see my fish.”

 

“You have fish?”

 

“Yeah? I have a lot, do you want to see?” Law asks curiously, taking out his phone. “This is Shambles, who is a yellow tang.”

 

“Oh pretty,” Luffy says bouncing on his toes. “There’s more fish!”

 

Law laughs, “I have more than one, well,” he pauses and turns to another picture. “More than just Tang. I have coral and a couple clownfish and their anemone. They’re mostly named after medical techniques. I would buy a new one after passing an exam or something. Mostly decorations, since Tangs are territorial and I don’t have much space.”

 

“I wish I could do that with horses,” Luffy says shaking his head. “But too much money. Sometimes I volunteer to help pick out new barn cats. Because they cuddle and not as expensive as horses.”

 

“Barn cats?”

 

“The facility has lots of animals. Who’s this?” Luffy asks pointing at one of the clownfish. “Do you name them all?”

 

“That’s Mes and the other is Tact.”

 

“And this?”

 

“Auscuticulation, Aus for short. A shrimp, helps keep the tank clean and that’s the other one, Scintillography. They’re named after medical techniques. The rest of it’s coral, just a lot of coral. I don’t have enough tank space and I don’t have space for a bigger tank.”

 

“They’re pretty!” Luffy promises. “Maybe one day you can get a big one and have so many!”

 

“That would be nice, but I’m not sure if I could. They take a lot of work and I don’t want to have more fish tank than I can care for. I’ve got a busy job, but maybe,” Law agrees. “Do you think they’re done? No offense, but I want to go home tonight.”

 

“I’m hungry.”

 

“Sounds like it’s time to go then,” Ace says startling Law. “Marco has promised food as soon as we get away from Windsor.”

 

“Since he’s done kissing you,” Luffy says sticking his tongue out in disgust.

 

Marco doesn’t even look ashamed, which Law thinks he should, “Come on, I moved my car closer so we don’t have to walk as far. We’ll stop for food somewhere. Do you want a drive through or an actual restaurant?”

 

“Food that I can eat.”

 

“Law, I care about you, but I’m going to need you to remember that I know at least a number of places with food that you were able to eat previously, we were always going to one of those.”

 

“Then I have no other preferences.”

 

“Lots and easy to eat?” Ace says rubbing his face. “I’m not in the mood for anything difficult.”

 

“Same!” Luffy agrees, but he’s bouncing less. “Please Marco.”

 

“Let’s see what I can do.”

* * *

 

“Good morning,” Law yawns, waving to Luffy as he approached the table that Luffy had obviously claimed for them while waiting. “Sorry I’m late, I missed the first bus.”

 

Luffy laughs, “That’s okay! We can have breakfast and then I’ll show Traffy all the horses. I ordered coffee, first?” he adds. “Traffy said he liked coffee in the morning?”

 

“It’s the one thing that I risk everything for,” Law agrees, falling into the seat across from Luffy and hunching over to blink blearily at his cup. “Thank you.”

 

“That’s what friends are for!”

 

Law hums, sipping his coffee to wake up as they get the menu for breakfast, the food listed with the ingredients underneath, which meant less chance for Law to end up visiting the hospital on his day off. The only worry he has is cross contamination, either at the factory or now, but there’s no way for him to know until he eats.

 

“You look tired still,” Luffy says finally, arms crossed on the table. “Is Traffy not sleeping?”

 

“I will sleep when I’m dead, if I sleep ever,” Law mutters darkly into his cup. “You need to sleep more, you were the one that was texting me until three in the morning yesterday.”

 

Luffy pouts, drinking something that Law feels isn’t coffee, “That was one time, unlike Traffy who likes to stay up until four in the morning and sleep until seven before getting up for work on a normal basis.”

 

Law laughs, “You’re giving me too much credit, I’m lucky to sleep for two hours a night, the fact you think I’m getting three means that I’m doing well with fooling you.”

 

“Traffy,” Luffy gasps scandalized. “You shouldn’t lie! And you should sleep more or you’re going to die.”

 

“That sweet embrace,” Law hums as a waitress passes, filling his cup back up to the top. “You never did tell me how the last day of events went. I know you placed well, but you never talked about what your students did.”

 

“They did good,” Luffy says slowly, leaning back as a different waitress sets a plate down in front of him. “It was really busy for them and I was real worried that something bad would happen because Coby gets sick when he’s too stressed.”

 

Law nods, letting Luffy talk excitedly between overwhelming mouthfuls of his breakfast, fork twisting in his hand to add to his gestures. His voice more of a pleasant, if almost distant, rumble as Law tries to stay focused on him and fails.

 

“We can go another time, you look really tired,” Luffy says, touching Law’s arm. “You could have canceled if you were that tired.”

 

“I’m not,” Law yawns again, trying to clear his eyes. “I’ll have plenty of time to sleep later, right now we have to eat and then I get to go and pat horses.”

 

“You aren’t eating.”

 

“I have coffee, nectar of Gods, I don’t need to eat.”

 

Luffy’s eyebrow goes up higher than should be possible, frowning at Law around his fork, “Traffy is stupid.”

 

“I’m not stupid, that’s extremely rude, Luffy. I’m a genius, you know.”

 

“Geniuses can be stupid. My dad is super smart and he forgets that he has more than three students. And Auntie Rouge is super smart and can’t remember her own wedding anniversary,” Luffy pauses. “And Marco is a genius and he can’t remember when he and Ace are in public or not.”

 

Law chokes on his coffee, trying not to laugh, “You-?”

 

“It’s true!” Luffy grumbles. “Ace and Marco were even worse recently and started kissing in the hallways between our apartments! I couldn’t go to my bed!”

 

“Disgusting.”

 

There’s a long moment of silence because Law doesn’t know what to say and Luffy’s mouth is stuffed too full so that even he won’t risk talking. But it’s also nowhere near as uncomfortable as the last time that Law went on a date and they had sat in absolute, uncomfortable silence as they both tried to and failed to come up with something new.

 

“When you’re all done, we can go see the horses,” Luffy cheers, clearing his plate and sipping his drink through a straw. “And you have to eat first, because you can’t pat all the horses enough if you don’t eat.”

 

“I did eat,” Law assures, even as he starts on the pastry that Luffy had shoved onto his plate, trying to finish it as quickly as possible so that they could go see the horses. “You feed me more than Marco does.”

 

“I don’t do anything!” Luffy pouts. “I just said that you needed to eat more, Traffy.”

 

“And then you talked about all the restaurants that you know list all their ingredients and that a few even list if their products are made in the same location as something that could set off an allergy,” Law says rolling his eyes. “Not even Marco does that much.”

 

“Because Marco doesn’t know the cool restaurants that I know,” Luffy grins.

 

“The cool restaurants that you know,” Law raises his eyebrow as he wipes his hand off on a napkin. “I’m sure. Have I eaten enough to be allowed to pat horses?”

 

Luffy frowns, before nodding, “Yeah. Do you wanna bring coffee with us to see the horses? Some of my students will be there and I know there’s training going on, so you might have to deal with at least greetings.”

 

“I can deal with that,” Law assures as he stands. “Are we ready?”

 

“Yeah,” Luffy bounces to his feet, already digging his money out to slap on the table before leading the way outside and towards the MFEC.

 

It’s not crowded, but it’s easy to see that it’s busy, with people moving around with their horses, but nothing like the times his parents had brought him here to see something when he was little and the crowds were enough to press in from all sides.

 

“That’s one of my students,” Luffy waves at a younger teen with the brightest pink hair that Law has ever seen. “Morning Coby!”

 

Coby waves back, almost hiding behind his horse, extremely effective since the horse is so much bigger than him, before another one of the teenagers shouts for him.

 

“I don’t train full time,” Luffy explains, arms falling back down to his sides. “But I’m able to help out enough that there’s a couple of students that call me their trainer and want me at their events when I can make it or we’re competing in the same place.”

 

“You would connect well with children,” Law smirks, stuffing one of his hands into his pocket as he drinks his coffee. “You’re pretty energetic.”

 

“You were gonna say something mean,” Luffy pouts crossing his arms over his chest and looking anywhere but at Law. “I’ve been nice. I’m letting you see my horses and I told you about the cool restaurants that I have found and you’re being mean!”

 

Law laughs, leaning closer to hit his arm against Luffy’s shoulder, “You’re putting words in my mouth. It’s not my fault that you’ve jumped to conclusions. Now, I was promised horses, Luffy, and yet I don’t see any horses that I’m allowed to pat.”

 

“Fine,” Luffy sighs, grinning up at him. “Come on, my horses are kept with the rest of my family’s.”

 

“They’re kept seperate?”

 

Luffy nods, “It’s our facility, we keep our horses in a more secure location. It’s open up during the day, because we’re usually in and out of it. Mostly it’s locked up at night and when we’re hosting competitions. There’s a guard there too, who keeps an eye on anyone coming in and out.”

 

“Why would you worry so much?”

 

“Because the easiest way to take out a competitor is by taking out their horse. Break my arm? And I might not be able to ride in that particular competition, but I would probably at least attempt the one after that. Hurt Elly or Merry or Rain? I won’t be able to do anything because you can’t compete without a horse,” Luffy answers passing through a gate locked in an open position, a lock pad on the other side of it. “We have security through the whole place, of course, but just a bit extra for our personal horses.”

 

Law hums, “You would ride with a broken arm?”

 

“Of course!” Luffy says rolling his eyes. “As long as I break it in the right spot, it won’t cause that much issue. I would still compete even if I broke my wrist.”

 

“You would,” Law can suddenly understand the way that Marco sighs at his phone and then puts it down on the table looking dead inside.

 

“We have twenty four hour surveillance too.”

 

“You do?”

 

“Horses can do dumb things, often and we want to make sure that it doesn’t hurt them, this means we catch it faster than a patrol. Same for drastic changes in health. Health concerns are a big part of it. Plus Gramps said that there was a couple of times where people’s horses tested for something on the doping list and they swore that they hadn’t done it, he’s a little paranoid about that..”

 

Law raises an eyebrow, “Does that cause problems?”

 

“Either a six month suspension from all competitions or,” Luffy shrugs. “If it’s bad enough? You can be forced to retire from the sport entirely.”

 

“That’s a lot worse than I was thinking,” Law admits. “That’s why your family is so stringent on their security then?”

 

“Well, yeah. Sometimes it’s for sabotage, if you keep the horse from the rider. I suppose you could hide the horse and never compete with it and no one would know,” Luffy tilts his head in thought as he leads the way to a stable. “Technically that means you could breed the horse, but it’s not really likely? Because studbooks and lack of paperwork would reduce the foal’s value. Or if you have a vet help, you could replace the microchip. But all of our horses are branded.”

 

“There’s more to horse theft and sabotage in equestrian events then I thought,” Law mutters dropping his empty cup into one of the garbage cans littering the area. “Horses now?”

 

“Horses,” Luffy agrees. “Rain!”

 

Rain’s head lifts up, looking at them both before returning to eating, no longer interested in them when there was food.

 

“He didn’t see treats,” Luffy tells Law, grinning. “Horses look for treats or weird pockets. Treats are better than food, but food is better than people. Well,” Luffy gestures at what Law thinks is cabbage. “It’s green food, much better than people.”

 

“Is hay not better than people?”

 

“It’s not green,” Luffy answers patting Rain’s shoulder. “You can pat him, he’s not going to get mad at pats while he’s eating. Just be careful of his feet.”

 

Law nods, stepping closer and brushing down Rain’s side, “Feet?”

 

“Horses move when they eat and don’t always pay attention to where they’re moving, like that. Your feet are very squishable. And don’t go past the hips.”

 

“I won’t,” Law assures, smiling as he keeps brushing over Rain’s side, moving his hand to brushaway the shaving he can see on Rain’s back. “Rain seems happy just to eat his food and get pats.”

 

“That’s all horses want, well,” Luffy grins. “And a place to run as fast as they can and treats and brushes and sometimes baths.”

 

“Only sometimes baths?”

 

Luffy nods, “No one likes getting wet when it’s cold outside. Horses feel the same way and they don’t have nice warm bathrooms to step out into either.”

 

“I can understand that. No one likes cold.”

 

Rain might not be interested in Law, but Law is still interested in Rain. It’s not soft, Law had thought that it would have been softer, but it’s nice. It almost reminds him of a dog, just so much bigger.

 

“Traffy looks happy,” Luffy says grinning at him from the other side of Rain, leaning around Rain so that Law can see him. “You like Rain?”

 

“I like Rain,” Law agrees. “Rain’s very nice and has not tried to bite me.”

 

“Elly bites everyone,” Luffy says shrugging easily. “And Elly wanted you to stay, he would have gone for something other than your sleeve if he was mad. He thought you had more carrots and wanted you to stay so he can keep them.”

 

“He thought I would be hiding carrots from him?”

 

“Horses like treats, I know I told you that, Traffy.”

 

“I didn’t think they would decide that I was hiding carrots from them and try to stop me from leaving.”

 

“He wanted to check your pockets,” Luffy adds. “You have pockets and you’re a new person, gotta check if those pockets hold treats. He wasn’t happy that I helped you out and we left. You were new and thus your pockets and what you have in them aren’t things he knows.”

 

“Uh-huh,” Law brushes the last of the shavings off of Rain’s back. “Rain does races?”

 

“Rain is the fastest of my horses,” Luffy agrees. “Well, at least he’s the best at speed competitions. Wanna see Merry?”

 

“If you are willing to show me Merry. I came to see horses, more than one is nice.”

 

Luffy laughs, “Come on then, we’ll see Merry and then Elly too. Be a good boy and eat all your green, Rain,” he pats him one last time and leads the way out the stall, closing it behind Law before directing the way further down. “That’s Wistera,” Luffy whispers as they pass a black horse.

 

“I thought she would be out riding with Ace?”

 

“Later, Ace is out there with Spadille right now. He trains with them on schedules and it’s Spadille’s turn,” Luffy explains leading further down and smiling. “Merry!”

 

Merry is pushing her hay out of her stall, stopping only when Luffy steps closer to push it back in with his foot. She doesn’t go back to her game, however, after looking up and finding no snacks.

 

“Did you finish all your green stuff,” Luffy asks, patting her shoulder. “This is Merry, she’s a good girl, but she’s also the youngest of my four main horses. You would have seen her when we were at Windsor.”

 

Law frowns, because he remembers meeting a horse called Merry at the competition, but he can’t really remember what it looked like, “Hello again.”

 

“You don’t recognize her, do you?”

 

“Not at all.”

 

“It’s okay,” Luffy promises, grinning. “When Ace and Marco first started dating, Marco bought treats for St Elmo and saw him in the pasture, but it wasn’t St Elmo.”

 

“It wasn’t?

 

“Nope, it was Wistera. She and St Elmo have white marks on their faces, but Marco didn’t know that because he always saw Wistera with a earnet and that helped hide it. She saw treats, horses will answer to any name if they see you calling one of them over with treats. Ace laughed himself sick, because St. Elmo is a boy.”

 

Law laughs, “I see, that sounds like it would have been rather funny to see.”

 

“Ace thought so. That’s when Marco found out that Wistera and St Elmo have the same mom, so technically they look more alike than two random black horses.”

 

“Those are mine,” Law states when Merry’s attention is drawn to his pockets. “And I don’t have any yummy things. Just keys, phones, an epipen, and money. Next time I’ll bring something for treats.”

 

“Don’t say that word,” Luffy whispers. “I think they know what t-r-e-a-t-s means. We don’t want Merry to think you’re hiding anything else. Do we?” Luffy asks patting Merry’s neck. “Be a good girl.”

 

“Next horse?” Law asks curiously, following him out of the stall.

 

“Yeah, Archer and Elly are in the stables and then we’ll go out to the pasture to check up on Spark and Snow, they’re the ones that I’ve been sending you pictures of while I was competing all week,” Luffy agrees, securing the stall and moving further.

 

“You said four main horses?”

 

“Elly, Merry, Rain, and Archer. Snow is old enough to start working in normal competitions which is good.”

 

“That’ll make five main horses?”

 

“Nope, that means that I’ll slowly retire Elly over the next few years and have Snow step up to take his place. That way I always have four main horses for adult competitions. Even if sometimes they number up to five,” he stops. “Oh, Archer is napping.”

 

Archer is laying down in a far corner of the stall-

 

“I think he’s awake,” Law says after a moment.

 

“She is,” Luffy laughs, “Archer’s being a lazy girl. Eating in bed instead of standing up like the others.”

 

“Lazy?”

 

“Archer likes to sleep right up until it’s time to eat when she doesn’t have training and then eat from bed. She’s a good girl, but a lazy one sometimes. We’ll let her be and go see Elly instead,” Luffy sighs, leading the way further. “Elly!”

 

Law pauses, watching a horse go through the open door at the back of the stall, vanish from sight for several minutes before coming back in for just a moment and going again. Watching the cycle repeat itself until Luffy tapped his arm and raised an eyebrow.

 

“Sorry, I was,” he gestures to the stall he’s been staring at.

 

“We have private pastures attached to each stall,” Luffy explains. “That’s what the horses like to do, run in and out as they please.”

 

“And that’s fine?”

 

“Sure, as long as the door is open, they can go between the two as they like. It’s good for them,” Luffy pauses, patting his pockets and passing Law a baggy of apple slices. “To make sure that Elly doesn’t bite you.”

 

“Because Elly likes to bite?”

 

Luffy laughs, “Elly’s insta tag was almost something to do with teeth. But Smelly Elly was better. Not to be mean, but it’s Elly,” he stops before a stall. “Elly!”

 

Elly snorts as Luffy leans over the door to pat his neck, Law almost feels like he’s been judged when Elly looks at him. Which is stupid, horses wouldn’t be able to judge him.

  
“If you pull out an able slice and come closer,” Luffy whispers, “Elly will let you pet him.”

 

“Without a risk to my fingers?” Law asks undoing the baggy and putting one slice on his hand, making sure to keep his fingers out of the way. “Elly, it’s good to see you again.”

 

Elly ignores him until after the apple slice is gone, using his nose to press Law’s hand about in a search for more.

 

“You just want treats,” Law mutters giving Elly another slice and patting his side. “I know, treats are much better than people.”

 

There’s a moment after Law runs out of apple slices that he’s sure that Elly is going to bite him, but he doesn’t, letting Law continue patting him with Luffy instead of getting bitten. Which Law thought was what happened with Elly.

 

“He likes you more than Marco,” Luffy says grinning. “He never lets Marco keep petting him without treats, even if I’m petting him too.”

 

“Well, I’m glad that Elly likes me more. Elly is a good horse and so pretty.”

 

Luffy grins, too wide and bright exactly how Law had seen it on the posters, “We can take Elly out? Elly likes to do things and I haven’t done much with him today, we can let him into the pasture with a headcollar.”

 

“A headcollar.”

 

“Like a leash for horses. Elly can walk around and you can see him doing stuff instead of just in his stall. He’s more fun when he can go play. Because stalls are boring.”

 

Law nods slowly, “If you think it’s a good idea?”

 

“Yeah! Stay here, Traffy, I’ll be right back,” Luffy bounces as he hurries out the stall and away from them, Law watching him go in confusion.

 

“He makes no sense,” Law sighs, petting Elly’s side.

 

Elly huffs, stomping his front hooves as Law brushes the shavings from his coat, waiting for Luffy to come back from his rushed exit. But this is nice, Law decides. The stable isn’t silent, it can’t be with so many horses moving around to eat or to their pastures, but it’s nowhere near as loud as Law would have imagined sitting in the heart of London.

 

“Back,” Luffy says startling Law from his thoughts. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you, Traffy.”

 

“It’s fine, it’s quiet.”

 

Luffy grins, “Dad says that too. He likes it,” he leans in like he’s telling a secret. “When dad can’t escape paperwork and it’s killing him, he brings it to the stables so no one can find him. We all know he’s here, but we don’t bother him.”

 

“I can see why.”

 

“Are you saying we’re loud?” Luffy asks, moving to put the headcollar on Elly and checking to make sure that it was on right. “That’s mean.”

 

“You’re loud sometimes,” Law reminds him, stepping out the stall and moving ahead as Luffy and  Elly followed him out of the stall and out of the stable. “If you wanna lead him when we get to the pasture? Just because I don’t want to have anything bad happen before we get there.”

 

“That’s fine,” Luffy agrees, as Law shoves his hands into his pockets following him, watching the rest of the horses as they passed. There’s a lot of people leading horses to and fro, or riding in fenced off sections.

 

“Is it always this busy?”

 

“No, weekends are busier than weekdays. People have work and school, we’ve got lessons in the afternoon then, but there’s not really anything big?” Luffy shrugs. “There’s people like me and Ace and Sabo, we all compete professionally and nothing else, so you know.”

 

“Is that all you do?” Law asks curiously.

 

“No, we have family stuff. We own hotels and other things, I have a section of the business portfolio that I take care of,” he pauses. “I’m taking college classes too. I’m slowly, really slowly, working towards a degree in International Relations.”

 

“You are?”

 

“It’s hard, because I normally only take four classes a semester and they’re mostly languages right now. Because I’m overachieving and doing more than the ones that I already know,” Luffy grins. “But I’m gonna have to slow down more when the Olympic Qualifiers start.”

 

Law nods, because he can’t imagine going to college and competing in the Olympics, “I hope it goes well for you.”

 

“Thanks! We’re here,” Luffy gestures to the pasture. “Wanna get the gate, please?”

 

“I’ve got it.” Law agrees, unhooking the gate and moving to the other side of it to let Luffy and Elly enter first. “The fence is just wires?”

 

“Electric fence. It’s helpful in keeping the horses and works better than a wooden one,” Luffy explains leading Elly to the center of the empty pasture,  “Alright, don’t wrap this,” he holds up the lead attached to the headcollar. “Around your hand. It’s dangerous to do, you’ll wanna kinda fold it up or scrunch it so you’re holding all of it.”

 

“Like this,” Law asks, showing Luffy what he had done.

 

“Yep, If you wrap it and Elly moves the wrong way, it’ll tear up your hand,” Luffy explains. “We can walk him some, but I’m gonna need you to listen to  me. It’s too wet for us to let Elly run about on his own. And puddles.”

 

“Puddles?”

 

“Some of them are too deep, we had someone check after the rain storm last night, so we have to keep Elly from running around.”

 

“So I just?”

 

“Let Elly have some of the lead, he’ll walk around and you’ll just move to keep him in sight. He’s probably going to try and graze, which is fine. The lead keeps him from running, if he starts running, he won’t notice the puddles and get hurt.”

 

Law nods, watching Elly move to graze, and then lowering himself onto the ground, “What?”

 

Elly twists, all four legs going into the air and twisting, kicking to keep them above him before making a grunty noise and falling onto his side.

  
“What?”

 

“That’s how horses itch,” Luffy explains, laughing. “You looked so confused.”

 

Law frowns at him, “I don’t know what horses do!”

 

“I know, Ace did this to Marco too and he made the best faces. You did too,” Law doesn’t think that he’s ever seen Luffy do anything other than smile, not when he keeps doing it everytime he talks. “They were the best faces and I will remember them forever.”

 

“Elly’s not going to get hurt?”

 

“Just keep the lead away from his feet. That’s the most important thing, if he gets tangled that’s extremely not good.”

 

Law nods, focusing on doing just that as Elly rolls more, before getting back up onto his feet. He seems happy, grazing and only moving to new patches.

 

“We can pet him,” Luffy says finally. “I mean, you said you wanted to?”

 

“Please.” Law agrees following Luffy towards Elly. “Are those your students?”

 

Luffy nods, “Coby and his friend. They’re probably finishing up for the day. They take lots of pictures of the horses and post them on Insta sometimes. I asked them to tag me or use the horse’s tag if they put up pictures of mine.”

 

“Ah, I would rather not?” Law starts. “No offense to you, but I’m not a fan of having pictures of myself in strange places.”

 

“I’ll talk to him,” Luffy hurries over to the edge of the fence, staying far enough to avoid touching it as he talked to Coby and his friend, both of whom looked like they were listening intently. “Law, what if it’s not your face!”

 

“That’s fine,” Law sighs, because it is. People can’t tell it’s him and they’ll be too distracted by the horse, he’s sure.

 

“Thanks, for letting him put one up without your face. He wanted to tell people that Elly made a new friend,” Luffy says brightly, rejoining. “Elly doesn’t make friends often and it’s always nice to see him get along with people without copious amounts of t-r-e-a-t-s.”

 

Law laughs, “I still don’t know if I think horses recognize that word or not.”

 

“You’ll see,” Luffy promises. “If you keep coming to visit, if you say the word, they’ll get excited and demand them now. Like little kids, they want the yummy things.”

 

“The yummy things?”

 

“You like things that taste good, so do horses,” Luffy shrugs. “Wanna see more horses?”

 

“Yes.”

* * *

  
Tuesdays are the worst days of Law’s week, at least they were every other week, when he spent Monday night up and working in the hospital. Worse now, since Luffy had taken to sending texts with pictures of his horses hours before Law would even consider waking up. Not that Law disliked horse pictures, it was just he wanted sleep more.

 

His phone buzzes for the fourth time in ten minutes and Law grumbles, reaching for it and hissing as the light from it burns his eyes. It unlocks with his fingerprint and he hides his face in his pillow when it seems to get impossibly brighter, pulling down his notifications and opening his messages to read them.

 

One’s from Lami, letting Law know that she’s going to be gone most of the day and that she hopes he sleeps well. Also, their mom left muffins for him in the kitchen, which is almost tempting enough to get Law up and moving, almost. Another from his mom about the same muffins, chocolate chip, as if that would tempt him more.

 

Most of them are from Luffy. The first is a picture with, Law squints at the picture, Elly maybe and good morning written across it with far too many exclamation marks. Followed almost an hour later by a simple sorry and a screenshot of a twitter post from Coby, Law thinks that’s the pink haired one’s name, of Luffy smiling at his phone.

 

It’s taking too long for him to register what the caption, tweet?, is saying. Before he closes his eyes and counts to ten, trying one more time.

 

 **Coby Shells MF Jumping Rider ☑️** @CobyMFRider

@LuffyMFRider wouldn’t stop smiling at his phone. Apparently his partner is going to an event with him.

29/05/2017 16:30

 

Law groans into his pillow, sighing tiredly as he looks back up at his phone. The last text is another screenshot of the picture that Coby had asked to post online last week, when he had been in the field with Elly, two of the replies circled in red for him to focus on. He doesn’t know the handles, which means it’s one of the fans that Luffy mentioned occasionally.

 

 **ridergurlfan** Does anyone else think that Luffy’s new boyfriend is wearing too many spots?

  
**motherheckhorse** That is Luffy’s Mysteriously Spotted Boyfriend. At least we can tell him apart from Ace’s Mysterious Boyfriend easily.

 

It wasn’t a secret, but he had been expecting it to take more than a day for people to realize they were dating, even if Luffy was smiling like that at his phone. And the picture from last week’s visit had been replied to the same day. Long before they had gotten a chance to talk about anything.

 

“Traffy? Aren’t you suppose to be sleeping?” Luffy asks when he answers his phone. “Did my text wake you up?”

 

“Mhm, kinda,” Law yawns, shifting onto his back and staring at his ceiling. “Just looked at them. I’m guessing you gave Coby permission for the new picture?”

 

Luffy’s probably nodding, forgetting Law can’t see him, “Yeah. I didn’t think it would blow up so fast, but now I’m getting people @ me on twitter to ask about my partner and if ‘mysteriously spotted boyfriend’ and my partner are the same person.”

 

“You said you had fans, but I wasn’t expecting that.”

 

“I know. Marco wasn’t either, I can issue a statement if you want. Say something about how it was a different kind of partner or have Nami word things so they get so confused that they don’t know what exactly is true.”

 

Law hums, glancing over to his fish tank, “It’s fine, Luffy. We were going to tell people we were dating at some point.”

 

“But this isn’t really telling.”

 

“It’s fine. If you wanna release a statement, you can always post that picture you made me take yesterday, where I ducked down too much and all you really caught was your face and my hat. Since I’m a mystery boyfriend now.”

 

Luffy laughs, “Marco said that he liked avoiding people bothering him at work about Ace. But if you wanna be a mysterious spotted boyfriend, we can do that. I’m sorry for not consulting you first, about the picture I let Coby post.”

 

“It’s fine, Luffy. Next time, please ask, but it’s a bit too late to worry about it now, isn’t it?” Law blinks slowly, still exhausted. “What time is it?”

 

“Too early for you, go back to sleep and maybe we can have dinner? Unless you want to spend time with your family?”

 

“Not sure yet,” Law sighs, closing his eyes because they feel less like burning when they’re closed. “Let you know when I’m up, but if not, dinner tomorrow for sure.”

 

“Tomorrow. Night.”

 

“Night,” Law mutters, barely fumbling to end the call and put his phone back on the charger before collapsing back onto his bed and yawning. Sleep, he would worry about twitter later, when Marco finally saw them and started sending him increasingly smug reaction gifs.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (there's been some editing to the social media parts of the last chapter, if you want to check it out!)

“I’m going to die,” Law groans into the table top, ignoring Ikkaku’s comments about how unsanitary it was. “Who in their right mind orders this much food?”

 

“You do, apparently,” Uni answers, Law can hear him picking up one of the packages of food that Luffy had ordered in his weird mission to feed Law. “What did you get this time?”

 

Law lifts his head up enough to look at the receipt, “Curry and rice, some kind of noodle dish I think, and whatever a number seven is. You tell me.”

 

Ikkaku laughs, “Ordering with your eyes instead of your head. That’s a plan. Can you even eat any of this?”

 

“Yeah, should be able to,” Law sighs, sitting up reluctantly because it smells good and he’s hungry. It doesn’t mean that he won’t remind Luffy that he doesn’t eat as much as a fully trained, and active, athlete. “If you help me finish it.”

 

Clione grins, already picking up a container to sniff it curiously, “You don’t have to ask. You know that we’re always up for free food. Jesus, this smells fucking amazing.”

 

“I don’t remember the last time something smelt this good in the hospital,” Ikkaku agrees, dumping curry onto a paper plate from one of the cabinets. “How spicy is this?”

 

“It’s not,” Law answers instantly because he doesn’t always react the best to spicy foods. “There’s apparently mild heat from spices, but I’m not-” he shrugs, cutting himself off. “Can I see whatever this number seven is?”

 

“I think it’s this,” Uni answers sliding it across to him. “I want none of it.”

 

Law barks a laugh, “Then I’ll have it.”

 

It’s delicious, whatever it is. Warm and tasty in a way that Law wasn’t used to food being because normally it was warm but bland. Another restaurant that Law would have to visit to see the full menu, since Luffy was always kind enough to make sure that there was a takeout menu in the deliveries.

 

He takes another bite and reaches into his pocket to grab his phone. Luffy is competing today and Law can’t remember if he’s going to be riding right now, but if he is, then at least he’ll know that Law got his order-

 

“Are you literally dying?” Ikkaku asks when Law coughs, sputtering softly for a moment before he can breathe again. “Because if you are dying, can it wait for us to get someone called in?”

 

“I,” Law gasps, feeling more breathless than he thinks that he should be, “I’m fine. My friend,” he pauses, not wanting to explain more. “It’s fine.”

 

Ikkaku nods slowly, going back to her curry as Uni demands to know about the patient that had vomited on Dr. Rocinante’s shoes, insisting that it’s a valid topic when Clione scowls and gestures at his food. Ikkaku waves at her mouth, stuffed full of food, because she doesn’t eat as much as shoves it into her mouth, refusing to speak until her plate was empty, no matter how much they prodded her.

 

Law ignores them, staring at his phone because that was far more interesting. There’s a smattering of pictures, the one that Luffy had promised to send, showing off the horses and Luffy together, but the video at the bottom is what is new. It’s simple, Luffy bending down to pick up something, Law can’t tell what it is, and moving it closer to Rain, he thinks it’s Rain, talking softly and telling the horse how good it was. Except, Law keeps looking back at Luffy’s arse.

 

“You looking a little space cased there, Law,” Uni says suddenly interrupting his train of thought. “You okay?”

 

“I’m fine,” Law says slowly, typing out a quick message to Luffy thanking him for the food. “Why is it interesting for Dr. Rocinante to be vomited on? It’s common enough.”

 

“Thank you,” Ikkaku mutters into her plate. “Dr. Rocinante is a mess of a man. He’s a fucking genius, don’t get me wrong. He’s smart and he knows what he’s doing, but he tripped last week and almost broke the portable ultrasound.”

 

Law snorts, “He’s worse when he’s outside work. He’s not been allowed in a kitchen since I was very young,” he checks his messages, trying not to linger when he finds nothing new. “If it helps, Ikkaku, he rarely breaks things in a way that would destroy them?”

 

“I like the portable ultrasound,” she states firmly. “It’s helpful and I hate having to get one of the rooms cleared to use them. What is this from?”

 

“Spider’s Nest,” Law answers, tapping the menu. “It’s part of the MFEC’s plaza.”

 

Clione hums, “I didn’t know it had this shit and I’m going to be spending way too much money eating there now.”

 

“Can I see the menu?” Uni asks grinning when Law slides it over to him. “I don’t know man, these prices aren’t bad at all. And for shit that doesn’t make Captain Allergy over there go off. A great place for dates when you don’t know what the other can or can’t eat.”

 

Law ignores them talking about dates when he gets another text, Luffy sending a new picture of himself and a horse, Law still thinks that it’s Rain but he could be very wrong, with their faces side by side, followed by a line of exclamation marks and how they placed really well today and were on their way to get carrots.

 

“You smile at your phone a lot,” Clione says, startling Law as he types. “Someone important?”

 

“A good friend,” Law answers, congratulating Luffy on his placement before locking it. “They’re away at a competition and sending me pictures of their horses.”

 

Ikkaku leans closer, eyes wide, “You mean like the MFEC? Do they compete?”

 

“Yes,” Law pauses. “It’s not really important,” he gestures to the table. “What is important is cleaning this up.”

 

Uni whines, “But Law.”

 

“I shared my food with you, you can at least help me clean up, can’t you?” Law asks pointedly. “Maybe I should have kept my leftovers for Sachi and Penguin since you won’t even help me such a small amount.”

 

“Don’t lump me in with these losers,” Ikkaku states, dragging a garbage can closer with her foot hooked around one of the wheels. “I’m lazy, not an asshole. You fed me, I can throw things.”

 

Law smirks, “Friendship ended with Uni and Clione, Ikkaku is the only one of you three that I like. She can even hear the names of the other restaurants that I haven’t told you about.”

 

“That’s too much power,” she whispers, eyes wide and bright. “I love it.”

 

Clione laughs, “I’m cleaning too, why do you conflate me with this,” he gestures at Uni like he’s not sure what he is. “I’m a decent human who isn’t about to leave a mess when I could slide things to Ikkaku for her magic trash can.”

 

“My superpower, summoning trash cans.”

 

Law ignores their bickering and looks back at his phone, smiling when he sees that Luffy has spammed him with more pictures of his horse and an apology for the video.

 

“Don’t kill each other while I make a phone call,” Law says, pushing himself up from the table. “Or start a food fight, because those are disgusting.”

 

He doesn’t listen when they shout after him, something about how they’re adults, he thinks. He doesn’t exactly know how they became friends, but he’s not going to ask, stepping into a quiet section of the building.

 

“You did well then,” Law asks when Luffy picks up, laughing when he hears Luffy trip and fumble with his phone. “Were you not expecting a call?”

 

“I thought you had work!” Luffy says excitedly. “Traffy is always busy and I thought we would talk later after work?”

 

“I’m on lunch, which thank you. It was amazing. I don’t think I’ve had something like it before, but I thought I told you that I couldn’t eat that much?”

 

Luffy laughs, “But Traffy should eat more. Lots more.”

 

“I’ll try, but you order enough for you and that’s far more than I can hope to eat anytime soon. It’s made me some new friends, if nothing else.”

 

“That’s good,” Law hears movement, Luffy shouting just loud enough to be heard. “Sorry! It’s time for the children I came with to compete, I promised to cheer for them. There’s a lot of people competing in it.”

 

“That’s fine, Luffy. I wouldn’t want to keep you from your promises,” he pauses. “You apologized for the video?”

 

Law almost wishes that he could see Luffy, because he can imagine him looking slightly sheepish as he speaks, “Yeah, I had Cherami, she’s one of the youngest riders, help me take them. She’s a good kid, her parents own the Spider’s Nest! I guess she made a mistake when trying to take a picture and it was a video.”

 

“And you sent it?”

 

“No, she did. I had her do it because I was trying to calm Archer down. She’s a good girl but she’s nervous sometimes. She wanted pets,” Law bites his tongue because apparently it wasn’t Rain in the pictures. “So, I’m sorry about that.”

 

“It’s fine,” Law says slowly, because he is going to keep thinking about that stupid video for the rest of the day at least. “It’s nice hearing your voice.” Law stops because there’s no way that doesn’t sound extremely weird.

 

“I missed talking to you too!” Luffy says before it can get awkward. “I mean, we text lots, but it’s different?” Luffy pauses. “Not bad! Just different and I miss it. I didn’t know Traffy missed talking to me like this too.”

 

Law hums, “I do, but I have to go. Maybe I can call you later, after my shift?”

 

“Yeah!” Luffy says brightly. “Please?”

 

“Alright, then I’ll talk to you later,” Law says smiling easily. “I have to get back to work. Talk to you later?”

 

“Bye Traffy!”

 

Law sighs, staring at his phone for a long moment after he’s hung up. He’s not sure he likes the weird feeling in his stomach, no matter how much he enjoyed talking to Luffy. He almost drops his phone when it buzzes, a new message from Luffy.

 

It’s a little girl and a horse.

 

“Cherami Goldenweek and Mr. Three,” Law reads shaking his head, because that is certainly one of the stranger horse names he’s heard. “The best photographer, if you go to Spider’s Nest look out for her.”

 

Law shakes his head and slides his phone back into his pocket, he would think about the weirdness Luffy caused him later, when he didn’t have things scheduled.

* * *

 

Law doesn’t understand the immediate surge of worry that hits him when he sees Luffy’s text, the message simple, telling Law not to worry and that he’s fine, but he’s already opening up instagram and searching for a video of what happened, because everything seems to end up on Instagram when it has to do with Luffy.

 

There’s a new video that Luffy’s been tagged in and Law plays that first because it’s the first result which means it could be linked. Or that he will have to hunt more, but he’s going to start with this.

 

The video starts in a tack room, Law thinks that it’s the one at the MFEC, but he’s only seen it once personally. Luffy’s leaning dangerously to the side as he tries to pull off one of his boots, shifting to lean against the lockers and  _ missing _ . Instead, he tumbles to the ground, somehow pulling his boot of as he goes, sitting up quickly to hold it up like a trophy, causing the person filming to start laughing. Luffy spins around to face them and the video loops back around.

 

Law shakes his head, watching Luffy tumble down again before moving to his messages and sending one back, asking if this was common. He isn’t shocked when Luffy calls him back instead.

 

“You weren’t suppose to see that,” Luffy says, Law can hear the pout.

 

“You shouldn’t have told me about it then, I was worried. You can’t tell someone not to worry and that you’re fine without making them worry,” Law says easily. “But you didn’t answer my question, is this a common occurrence?”

 

Luffy is quiet for a long moment, “I might be clumsy.”

 

“Clumsy, huh,” Law asks leaning back against the wall in the office he had stolen for a quiet moment. “How clumsy is clumsy suppose to be?”

 

“I’m not that bad,” Luffy promises. “Just a little.”

 

Law hums, putting him on speaker as he pulls Instagram back up and clicks on the tag that had been used on the picture, “Really? Because I seem to have found quite a few pictures of you with the hashtag clumsy Luffy.”

 

“You didn’t!”

 

“Luffy, I know how to check a hashtag.”

 

“I had a growth spurt!”

 

Law laughs, “Luffy, you’re insanely graceful on horseback. Even I can tell that and I only know what you and Marco have told me about horseback riding. There’s entire articles about it,” he ignores the noise that Luffy makes because it’s not important, the articles had been interesting, talking about Luffy’s ability to ride and the prizes he had won. Law didn’t know what Luffy could do with so many cars, some won even before he could drive. “I’m not going to think any less if you trip over your own feet.”

 

“I’m trying to be less clumsy and I was, but then I got taller and it was,” he trails off and Law can imagine him shrugging. “And we had to redesign the feed room. Sunny broke in and we had to change it to stop it from happening again.”

 

“That’s fair. I moved my bedroom around and banged my knee into my dresser for a month. You do know, that if you had left me to watch the video without a warning, I would have asked you about being clumsy.”

 

“I thought you might get worried. Traffy worries a lot.”

 

“How about this, if you have to seek medical attention, tell me. You were cute, you looked so triumphant and pleased with yourself, even after you fell on your arse.”

 

Luffy doesn’t answer and Law almost wonders if he dropped his phone, “I’m not cute!”

 

“I pretty sure I just read thirty plus comments on you being cute that prove you wrong,” Law states, passing another comment saying the same thing. “And you are cute. Should I not say that?” He frowns. “Is it weird to call your friends cute?”

 

“I don’t know?” Luffy says slowly. “Jinbe calls me cute? But he thinks I’m cute like a little brother, I think?”

 

“That doesn’t change the fact that people think you’re cute. But you should be careful, some of these look like they must have hurt a lot and there,” he winces, watching Luffy fall from his horse. “Do you fall off often?”

 

“Not really. Only sometimes. Don’t worry Traffy, I’m really good at this!”

 

“I know, but I feel like I should be worried. It could be dangerous and I would dislike it if you were hurt. It’s, you’re important.”

 

“I’m not important.”

 

Law hisses through his teeth, uncomfortable, “To me. You’re important to me.”

 

He doesn’t know what to say after that, it’s a weird sentence but it was too late to take it back or mitigate the strangeness of it. Not when Luffy obviously knows that he means it.

 

“You’re important too, Traffy. Traffy is really important too. To me.”

 

“Oh,” Law doesn’t know what to say. “I’m- I have to go.”

 

Luffy hums, “Okay, but Traffy? You really are important to me.”

 

“You too, I’ll talk to you later.”

 

“Bye Traffy!”

 

Law shoves his phone into his pocket and hurries out the room, trying to make sure that he remembers to breathe because he doesn’t know what that just was, but he is probably going to have to figure it out at some point.

 

Just, maybe not right now.

* * *

 

“You got a new couch since the last time that I was over,” Sabo says carrying their take away from Baratie. “Is this one comfier? Because I remember the last one had springs that dug into your back if you sat on it.”

 

“It did not,” Luffy says dropping onto the couch and turning on the television to the stream of Ace’s event. “And that couch didn’t even have springs! Why would you think there were springs?”

 

“Something dug into my back,” Sabo shrugs putting the bags onto the coffee table. “Thanks for letting me come over to watch. Koala has work to do and she gets cranky when she can’t get things done. She has an office and still likes to sprawl over the coffee table and the couch like she’s cramming for a college class.”

 

Luffy laughs, “Koala wouldn’t.”

 

“You say that, but,” Sabo’s phone is out and his gallery open faster than Luffy had expected, showing just what Sabo said. “Koala would never let me post this, so I have to be content with showing it off to people like this.”

 

“Because you would post twenty pictures of Liberty licking her face and compliment her because she’s pretty.”

 

Sabo laughs, “Koala is pretty.”

 

“I don’t wanna hear it!” Luffy says covering his ears for just a moment before hurrying to get his food out. “You’re as bad as Ace.”

 

“Ace didn’t wake you up an hour before you got up for training to help him pick clothes to impress a boy,” Sabo says shaking his head. “He made me do it at least once a week because he wanted to ask Marco out and then chickened out at the last minute.”

 

Luffy sticks his tongue out, “That’s stupid, if Ace liked Marco then he should have asked him out sooner.”

 

“Like you,” Sabo agrees, but doesn’t elaborate, which is weird. Sabo always says more. “But that’s just Ace.”

 

“You asked Koala out and you were worried about it because she’s your groom.”

 

Sabo hums, “Yeah, it took me a while to realize that I’m not actually in charge of Koala, really. I mean, I could ask for her to be reassigned? But she’s employed by the MFEC, not me.”

 

“You’re silly. Just like Ace.”

 

“Hush, I don’t need you to tell me that. I hear enough about me being silly from Koala. She’s an expert at telling me that I’m silly.”

 

Luffy laughs, leaning back against the couch with his food, “It’s Ace!”

 

“He’s suppose to be one of the ones to watch,” Sabo grins when Luffy keeps laughing. “What have you never heard? He’s quite talented, you know,” it doesn’t last as Sabo laughs. “You think these announcers would find a new way of saying it. It’s always the same verbatim.”

 

“You’re not the one that has to hear about how they praise you and then go on about your family and how it’s expected,” Luffy reminds him just as the announcers do a brief overview of Ace’s family tree, including Luffy as an up and coming. “Always say that.”

 

Sabo shakes his head, “No, I get compared to Benn occasionally because he taught me, but never like that. I’m a little grateful for it, I don’t know how you and Ace deal with the pressure.”

 

“Dad made sure that I always knew it was my choice. Auntie and Uncle too, they told me that this was a choice and if we didn’t want to ride then they wouldn’t make us,” Luffy shrugs. “It’s not like they forced us to ride, even if some people say it.”

 

Sabo hums, leaning forward as the camera moves back to Ace and the bell rings. Luffy stops, eyes following him, more annoyed when the screen shifts between cameras, it makes it harder to notice things.

 

“Why can’t we have one camera that follows him, instead of ten that zoom in and out?” Luffy mutters darkly when Ace finishes. It looks like he did fine, but, “It’s weird.”

 

“I know, but we’ll see his score soon. Hopefully this doesn’t take too long. I want to see it and if we don't get too many ties, we might even get to see if he wins.”

 

“If,” Luffy adds. “Ace wins anything, because what if he doesn't?”

 

“Who does he have with him this time? I always assume Wisteria but it could for once not be Wisteria,” Sabo shrugs. “And you know him.”

 

“So do you! And that's obviously Philly.”

 

Sabo blinks slowly, raising an eyebrow, “This may come as a surprise to you, but I am color blind,” he laughs when Luffy frowns. “Forgot that didn't you?”

 

“It's not important!”

 

“I'm sure. Which is why all my clothes are specially organized and Ace has to say the colors of things when I touch them so I know what I'm looking at. And Koala and Terry and my previous groom helped pick the colors best on my horses.”

 

Luffy wrinkles his nose, “But we don't talk about colors, just horses.”

 

“Horses have lots of colors. And they wear even more,” Sabo shrugs. “Hard to judge these things when you can't see it.”

 

“You also missed Ace and Philly's name on the bottom of the screen,” Luffy sniffs, not willing to argue horse colors today. “Does color blindness also take your ability to read?”

 

Sabo doesn't reply and Luffy counts it as a win, letting the silence linger as the next few competitors go. It let's Luffy finish his lunch, which is the most important part.

 

“Your dad's been asking about Law,” Sabo says suddenly. “I know that he asked Ace first but he mentioned that I met him too. Which a minute in a med tent doesn't count as a meeting.”

 

Luffy hums, “Dad always asks about my friends. He had one of his look into Zoro and Hancock.”

 

“You slept with both Zoro and Hancock.”

 

“Yeah, but dad was trying to find out about them before that. And dad looked into Zoro long before I slept with him. He liked them before that too. He looked into Sanji and Nami too?”

 

Sabo falls back onto couch with a sigh, “I give up. Do you think Ace is gonna win?”

 

“Maybe. He's always gonna be a top contender because of how good he is but I think his time was good compared to what we've seen so far. He could win.”

 

“But he is using Philly.”

 

“Philly is a good horse. A smart girl that listens well. She's basically a rabbit anyway. I think she'll get in the top three.”

 

Luffy relaxes when Sabo stops talking again. It wasn't weird that his dad was checking into his friends, that was what his dad did, but he would never understand why Zoro and Hancock were different, sure he had slept with them, but he could sleep with people. Dad said that Luffy could do what he wanted. He would have to ask his dad the next time they spoke, maybe he had missed something?

* * *

 

“Do you want an accreditation for your boyfriend,” Nami asks suddenly. “Or a ticket or something?”

 

Luffy frowns, tilting his head, “My boyfriend?”

 

“I might not ask, but you can't believe that you've been subtle. You've been ordering him food every day for the last two weeks and talking to him more than you do to anyone else.”

 

“You mean Traffy?” Luffy says slowly because he isn't ordering anyone else food, but he's sure that he's talking to at least Nami more than he is Law.

 

“Of course I mean Trafalgar, Luffy. Do you want me to get him an accreditation?”

 

“I have to ask,” Luffy says instead of arguing that he and Law aren't dating. He doesn't think that Nami would believe him either, she never does. “We're having lunch in a bit, I can ask him then?”

 

“Do that and either get his information then or have him text it later. I have a bit of time before it's due but I would like to get it submitted sooner rather than later,” Nami says going through another paper.

 

Luffy nods, standing up and grabbing his bag, “I'm going to lunch. Are you going to lunch soon? I thought you and Vivi had something planned.”

 

“Later, closer to dinner. She's in America again, I'm going to have a Skype dinner date.”

 

“Okay, bye, Nami!”

 

Luffy hurries to Baratie, bouncing and waving when he spots Law hurrying down the sidewalk to join him.

 

“Are we dating?” Luffy asks instead of saying hello. Hellos weren't important, Luffy wants answers more. “Nami thinks we're dating and I don't know if we are.”

 

Law blinks at him, his eyebrow raising, “Nami thinks we are dating and you don't know if we are?”

 

“Yeah, she asked because we have a competition coming up and she wanted to know if my boyfriend wanted accreditation to be able to visit the secure areas with me.”

 

“Well,” Law says slowly. “There's two very important questions in there. Do we want to figure out if we're dating first or do we want to talk about this competition?”

 

Luffy frowns, “I think lunch.”

 

Law laughs, “Let's get lunch and we can talk then. Have you been hearing that a lot? About us dating?”

 

“I,” Luffy pauses, trying to remember the talks he'a had recently. “I don't know. Sabo is always weird and Ace hasn't said anything, but Ace wouldn't.”

 

“Has your dad?”

 

“Dad isn't direct like that. Gramps doesn't get it, but dad only asks when he has gotten everything he can from somewhere else,” Luffy waves to Sanji when they step in, grabbing the table with the reservation paper on it. “Have your parents asked?”

 

“Mom has made a comment about me spending a lot of time on the phone but my dad is less worried. He only asks questions when he is worried,” Law shrugs. “Mostly about if I've been sleeping.”

 

Luffy stops, opening his mouth and closing it again when Sanji swirls over with their food and checking what they want to drink before vanishing just as quickly.

 

“This is not on the menu,” Law says slowly looking at his meal. “Is it?”

 

“No, Sanji is experimenting with food to make sure you can eat it and that it tastes good. Since you said it wasn't common. I told him we would be eating here today,” Luffy answers taking a bite as Sanji returns.

 

“I want a critique of this when you're done,” Sanji states, setting their drinks down for them. “If you like it and don't react, my dad might put it on the menu. Enjoy your meal and wave me down if you need anything.”

 

Luffy waits until Sanji has started taking another order before asking the question he wants an answer to most, “Are we dating?”

 

“I don't know,” Law says slowly, thoughtfully. “If someone else happened to be acting like this,” he pauses. “Would you like to date me?”

 

“Can I pick?”

 

“Pretty sure it's a mutual choice. Do you want to date me?”

 

“Do you wanna date me? I'm busy all the time and get distracted by horses and so many other things.”

 

“I basically live in the A&E.”

 

Luffy laughs, he knows it's not funny but he can't help it, “I do too.”

 

“I suppose the most important question left is if we want to date each other.”

 

“I like Traffy,” Luffy says crossing his arms over his chest. “I like Traffy more than I like Zoro and Hancock. I think I would like to date Traffy.”

 

“You dated your friends Zoro and Hancock?” Law asks curiously.

 

Luffy shakes his head, “No? I slept with them but we didn't date. They wanted to and I wanted to. But we're friends.”

 

“You didn't have to tell me.”

 

“Ace and my dad and Uncle Roger said honesty is good when you're dating. And if we don't know if we are or not, I thought it was better to be honest,” Luffy shrugs. “Are you friends with people that you-”

 

“No. I had a falling out with one and the other moved and the last was more we went to the same club and had similar tastes,” Law stops. “This is not what we are trying to discuss here.”

 

“I would like to date Traffy.”

 

Law states at him for a minute, eyes wide before he nods, “I would like to date you too.”

 

“Then we are boyfriends!” Luffy claps his hands, glad the dilemma was resolved. It was good to know and Luffy was glad it was taken care of. “Now the event?”

 

“The event,” Law agrees, even if he looks funny. Maybe he was confused by something. “When is it?”

 

“The 27th to the 30th of July,” Luffy remembers the dates best. “It's in Hickstead. I have to be there on the 26th but if you came, you could arrive on the 27th?”

 

“Are you sure about that?” Law asks pulling out his phone and looking at something. “I might be able to? I can at least arrive on the 26th and stay until the 29th? Might not be able to get the 30th.”

 

Luffy nods, “If you want, I don't mind if you can't stay the whole time.”

 

“Then yeah, I'll go,” Law finishes his lunch and sighs. “Do you need anything for it?”

 

Luffy nods, “I'm texting you what Nami will need. That way you don't have to remember it perfectly.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

Luffy isn't sure he likes the weird feeling that seems to take over when they stop talking, waiting for Sanji to ask his questions and pay their bill. It's almost worse when they step outside and stop where they say goodbye.

 

“I, this feels weird, doesn't it?”

 

Law laughs, “It does, far more awkward than it was before. But I think we can get past that, don't you?”

 

“Yeah!”

 

“I have to go, but I'll send a text with my information later,” Law shifts slightly, leaning down and pressing a quick kiss to Luffy's cheek. “Bye.”

 

Luffy stares after him for a minute before hurrying to catch up, “Traffy!”

 

“We just said bye,” Law says confused as Luffy tugs on his coat. “What?”

 

“You're too tall, bend down!” Luffy doesn't wait for Law to bend low enough, bouncing on his toes to make up the difference and kissing Law quickly. “Bye!”

 

Luffy hurries away, ignoring the text he gets until he reaches the stables. Law doesn't sound mad, but he does promise to get Luffy back later. Luffy is pretty sure he's winning something. 


End file.
